How to guide

This is a guide on how to have fun while riding in the car with your brother/sister.  First thing to do is let your big brother get his nap out.  They can be kinda grumpy if you pester them too soon!

Once they have finished the nap and you become bored with looking out the window, look for a weak spot to attack.

I believe a nipple twisting was mentioned and immediately that area was protected!.

If at first you do not succeed keep trying.  After all he hasn't been really awake for too long.  His reflexes might still be slow.
If you are the youngest sister this is your chance to swipe his phone and see if he has any cool games to play.

Can you tell how pleased she is with her self?  She can't believe he hasn't noticed that she has it yet!  It doesn't take long before big brother does notice and he has to try and get it back!

Seat belts make it hard to reach little sisters that have your cell phone.  Of course the other sister still has to be fought off.

 All of this has to be done with out making too much fuss.  If someone gets hurt mom will put a stop to all of it! 
Once the phone has been rescued from the youngest sister make sure that nothing embarrassing has been done on it!

Don't let your guard down!  It isn't safe yet!

Is it possible to win against two sisters?  Distracted again and guess who has the phone again?  She is even more pleased this time!

So far mom is letting it continue.  No one has started crying.  No one has lost an eye.  The nipples must be protected!  Keep a hold of the hands.  The hands can not be set free!

I am not sure if the nipple ever was twisted or not.  But the truce was called before any body was hurt.  There were still a few bragging comments that had to be made.

Big brother was pretty nice about it all.  It had to be pretty hard to not get too mean with his little sisters.

I don't think he was too worried cause he was back to smiling pretty fast.

Look at those dimples! 
OoOops!   That is off subject.  But that is all I have for this how to guide.  I have other things I will share later.

OK to PA

Here is one good reason to leave Oklahoma in July and to go visit family in Pennsylvania. 

OK temps 105+

PA temps 84+

It was so nice and cool there!  Weather was not the main reason to leave home.  The chance to visit family was!  It wasn't easy to get there.  EVERY airplane we tried to get on had maintenance issues. 

We, my sister and I, arrived at our local airport at 6:30 am central time and finally landed in PA at 11:30 pm Eastern time.  It was a very long day.  I won't bore you with all of our travel delays.  I will share that air travel is not the same as it was the last time that I flew.  Of course that was 19 years ago.  The world has changed just a little bit since then. 

Lisa is a great travel companion, she has a great since of humor.  We found ways to entertain ourselves during our long layover in Chicago.  (Excellent place to people watch!)  We had a late lunch/early dinner, walked around when we got tired of sitting and sat down when we got tired of walking. 
I have to comment on the Chicago airport's bathrooms.  I know the guys won't be as impressed but us girls know the value of having a clean seat!  With the wave of a hand the seat cover rotated off the old one and on with a new clean surface. 
Sorry. 
I don't get out much.  I looked in the Tulsa and the Scranton airports and they didn't have anything that fancy.

It had been too long since I had seen my brother.  It was so nice to see his wife Kathy again!  It was wonderful to get to spend time with their kids and get to know them better!

Here are a few pics from our visit.

My big brother.

Kaliegh, Dillon and Danny.

Makenna and Dillon

Kaliegh, Dillon and Kathy

It was a wonderful visit.  I wish we could have stayed longer.  I had so much fun!!  I have hundreds of pictures to go though. 

I am really glad getting home was much easier than leaving it was! 

Be it ever so humble.......

A bad guy, a couple of cops and us girls.

This past weekend Mattie (my baby girl) and I went to visit Kita (my oldest girl) in Stillwater.  Kita swears she lives a quiet life but.....she sure shared some excitement with us Sunday afternoon.  We were all out together getting some shopping done All we had left to get was some groceries for the cook out later that night.  Kita had us take the back roads on the way to the grocery store.  It was hot, hot, hot outside.  I am talking triple digit hot!  Mattie's poor little car was doing it's best to get us where we were going while cranking out the AC on high.  It was barely keeping up.  Mattie noticed a young man walking on the side of the road and made the comment "Poor guy, it is too hot to be walking".  Kita looked at him and got a funny look on her face, then said "Is it punishment enough?"  She recognized him as the person that broke into her house last year.  Apparently that guy had several warrants and had successfully ran from the local police while trying to serve those warrants several times.  Kita decided that walking in the heat was not punishment enough and called the local Police Department.  We had driven quite a ways past the "poor guy" by this time, so we turned back around, drove past him again, and pulled in a gravel parking lot out of sight.  We wanted to try and see if we could keep track of him so if he left the general area that had been reported to the police we could let them know that. 
Mattie's poor little car couldn't idle for long with the AC on so we had to turn it off and roll the windows down.   We were just sitting there discussing how long we should wait, wondering if he would notice us,  and melting in the 100 plus heat.  After several minutes we see the "poor guy" walk past.  He didn't even look our direction.  Mattie started her little car back up and pulled closer to the road so we could try to keep an eye on him.  The road way dropped off as we watched him continue to walk away.  We sat there at the end of the driveway trying to decide if we should drive by him a third time.  Would he get suspicious?  Had he even been paying any attention?  Finally we agreed it was worth the risk, we could no longer see him since the roadway dropped off going down hill.  We pulled back out on the road and once we were at the top of the hill we could see him again.  He was still making good time.  It is hard to believe he could walk so fast in the heat.  We drive slowly past him and continued on discussing options for other parking areas further along.  There is a four way stop about a quarter of a mile past him and as we pull up to it we see two police cars coming from the opposite direction.  There is no other traffic any where around so we all agree to just sit at the stop sign and watch what happens.  The two police units, one city and one county stop on the hill side and park their cars in the middle of the road.  They both get out of their cars and start walking towards the "poor guy". 
I think this is where I should quit referring to him as the "poor guy" and start calling him the "bad guy".  After all he is a burglar that has successfully run from the police several times and has several warrants for his arrest. 
So here we were sitting at the stop sign looking behind us watching the two officers approaching the bad guy.  At this point Mattie is still driving her car, Kita is in the front seat and I am setting in the back fighting with my seat belt trying to turn around and watch what is happening.  Of course the "bad guy" started to run.  He ran in circles a few times trying to avoid the two officers.  It is always funny watching a pursuit that goes in circles.  I have only seen video of it before and it was always a pursuit in vehicles.  This time it is on foot and I get to watch it live.  One tall skinny bad guy running from one county Deputy and one very tall city Police Officer. 
Running in the heat is not easy!  Running with a fully loaded police belt with all the gear only makes it harder.  I always feel sorry for the Officers in the summer.  The bullet proof vest that can save their life is like wearing an oven strapped across the core of their body.  It holds all of the heat in.  Running in 100 plus heat in one is horrid! 
So the bad guy that is not wearing all of that gear is leaving the officers behind.  He runs right past us.  We are all in a bit of shock watching while the bad guy runs towards some closed industrial buildings and disappears behind them.  For what ever reason we decide to follow him and see if we can see where he went.  We drive past several businesses and sure enough here he comes, still running.  He runs right on past us and disappears behind another building.  I see a few other police cars flying past with lights and sirens on towards where it all started.  Then I see them come flying back our way headed towards the area the bad guy ran.  Mattie had jumped out and ran towards the roadway to point the police cars in the area that the bad guy went.  As she was walking back towards the car here came the two officers on foot.  They look so hot and pathetic we offer to give them a ride to where all the other police cars have headed.  They both agree quickly.  Kita climbed from the passenger side to the driver's side, Mattie hopped in back with me, I scooted over to the middle of the back seat, the county Deputy hopped in the front passenger seat and the very tall city Police Officer opened the back door behind the driver's seat and was attempting to fold himself in the vehicle when Kita started to drive off.  He had to yell to her to stop that he wasn't in the vehicle yet.  There I was sitting in the middle of the back seat with my feet on the hump, purse in my lap, trying to take up a little space as I could.  At this point I am giggling, I couldn't help it.  It all seemed so funny.  Kita is giving the tall man a hard time about being slow, the Deputy is pulling out his stun gun and I am trying to not laugh at the tall Officer hopping along on one foot half way folded in to the back seat. 
Did I mention it was hot?  Mattie's poor little car was not able to keep it cool at all at this point.  It was way over loaded with five adults crammed in.  It had been sitting idling with the AC on high but it wasn't making a dint in the heat.  We would have been better off just turning it off and rolling the windows down. 
We didn't have far to go, as we turned one more corner there were all of the other Police cars and a dog pile of Officers on top of the bad guy.  We stopped, the two Officers jumped out and ran towards the dog pile and we just sat there for a moment taking it all in. 
At some point I had made the comment  that this was not how I planned to spend my Sunday in Stillwater.  Mattie had mentioned that I work for Owasso PD and Kita had told them that she was the person that called it all in.   I don't think they heard a thing any of us said. 
The tall city Police Officer came walking back towards us after it was all under control pulling out his note pad and pen.  While Kita gave him her name and contact info and Mattie and I tried to find somewhere that had shade.  It didn't take long, they thanked us for our help and we were allowed to leave. 
As we drove off we were all excited and jabbering about what had just happened.  It reminded me of when the Officers that I work with have an exciting call and would all come back to the station and talk about it.  It was the same adrenalin high that I have watched before.  This time it was us girls telling what we saw and noticed.  Funny how each of us noticed different things.
My little sister and I are headed out to visit our big brother and his family in the morning.  I am so excited to see them.  A very big bonus is we will be leaving behind highs like 104 in OK for highs like 83 in PA. 
Have I mentioned that it is HOT around here?  I usually like the heat but enough already!!

Off for a visit

Mattie, myself and her doggie went to Stillwater for a visit. It was an adventure.  Smidge, the dog, was a good girl.  Other than barking at Stewie, the dog, that lives in Stillwater. 
We were visiting my oldest daughter Kita.  Kita works nights so Sunday morning Mattie and I went for a walk in the old down town while Kita rested. 

There weren't many people about.  I guess when you go to a college town most peeps were out late Saturday and sleeping Sunday morning.

Smidge enjoyed her self!  She had to inspect every nook and crannie.  She did not like the water fountain.  I think it was just too loud for her.

I am working on a separate story about our adventure later that day.  It involved cops chasing a bad guy, on foot, in triple digit weather, and us giving them a ride in Mattie's little car. 

We did learn while doing this that Mattie's little car can fit the three of us, plus one County Deputy and one very large City Police Officer.  It was a tight fit but the very tall City Police Officer was able to fold himself, with considerable effort, in back with Mattie and I. 

I dispatched for almost 6 years and I am much more used to being in an office on the phone getting info to send officers on calls like this.  I have to admit it is much more fun seeing it all in person.  Not that all pursuits take place on foot, in the middle of nowhere, in the heat of the day, with nobody else around except the cops, the bad guy and us girls.  I have always enjoyed listening to the guys talk about a pursuit afterwards back at the station.  I don't ever remember any of them talking about having to get rides from Citizens. 

I will try to get it written and posted before I leave this weekend.  My next trip I am flying and hopefully it will be a bit cooler there!  I like summer but wow it has been HOT here in Oklahoma!

Enjoying

It was a good day.  Not great, not spectacular, but good.  That is good enough.
Here are some of the things that made it a good day.

My co-worker was sick this morning but got to feeling better and made it to work before lunch.  So he felt better and I didn't have to stay late.  It is good.

I didn't have to make a big mess in the kitchen.  I froze some of the lasagna I made a few weeks ago and all I had to do was warm it up.  It was almost as good as the day it was made.  The easy clean up balanced it out.  A day with out dishes (or only a few) is a good day!

I did not trust the driver of the big SUV that had his blinker on.  Good thing cause he didn't turn off the road, he did a U-turn.  It would not have been an equal contest.  My car would have been smashed.  It is paid for, I don't want it smashed.  Very good that I waited!

It was warm, not hot on the drive to Tulsa to visit Grams.  It started sprinkling but not enough that I had to roll my windows up.  So I was able to wind surf and enjoy the smell of rain on warm earth.  Life is good.

I love driving back roads with the windows down.  I enjoyed the smell of fresh cut grass as I drove past Lavendusky's pecan orchard.  I liked smelling the water as I passed over Bird Creek.  The smell of Summer is good.

Several good songs played on the radio during the drive.  Since I was alone in the car I could sing out loud with out worrying about hurting anybody's ears.   A good day that also has music is even better.

I noticed the car pulling out of White River Fish Market and started slowing down.  I was thinking it was all good since the old dude pulled to the inside lane leaving me the outside one.  Fake out!  He pulled back over in front of me.  My brakes work great.  It is a good thing! 

Grams was in a good mood today.  We played a few games of Cribbage.  We always play for nickles as a way to keep score.  We broke even.  She only complained once about not being able to drive any more.  It was good to be able to hug her and see her smile. 

On the drive back home it was even cooler.  Traffic was lighter so I could drive faster.  : )  Still had the windows down, wind surfing, and singing outloud.  The sunset was pretty.  The clouds promised rain and even if all we got were the sprinkles it was good enough to enjoy the cool breeze.

While sitting at a stop light back in Owasso I notice a car full of teenagers on the other side of the road.  They had the windows down and the radio up loud, they were all singing along, arms waving in the air enjoying themselves.  It looked like they were having a good summer evening too.  I had to smile and wave as I drove past them.  They smiled back.  It might be good to be young again......but then again maybe not.

It was a good day.  It isn't winter, THANK GOD!  Work was pretty calm.  I survived the crazy drivers on the way to Tulsa.  It was cool enough to drive with the windows down and enjoy summer.  It is the end of the day and I am enjoying  one of my favorite singers on Austin City Limits. 

It was a good day.   Life is good. 

Their turn

This past weekend the Grandbaby was driven to my house for a visit.  And it was a great visit!  Thank you Rob and Carrie for loading all of that baby stuff up and driving ALL the way here AND for staying two nights! 

I know y'all have got to be tired!  I miss you all already.

I was worn out after they left Sunday evening.  I didn't get any of the photos down loaded until this morning.  I had just enough time to get the photos loaded on the computer and take a quick glance at them.  There was one that I had to share on FB before I walked out the door for work.  The baby's smile just cracked me up!  He is such a cutie. 

It is not an original.  There have probably been 1000's of pictures taken here.  But look at his smile.  He loved looking out the hole and seeing his Mommy. 

We played and we played.  He was so tired each night.  But it was so much fun.

His Aunt Mattie spent Saturday evening with him. 

Yes, that is his shorts on top of his head. 

I love how everything is an adventure for him.  I love watching him figure things out.

He is not sure what to think of Shy.  She has to kiss him every time she gets near him and he doesn't really like big, wet doggy kisses all over his face.  We keep telling her "no kisses", but she can't seem to help herself.

We braved the heat and went to the Zoo Sunday.  It was hot!  Thank goodness there was a "skirt alert" wind blowing.  It would have been miserable if the wind hadn't been so strong!  I haven't been to our Zoo in several years.  I hardly recognized big areas.  I loved the Nature Exchange program.  Anybody can bring in things that they find that are native to Oklahoma and gather "points".  Things like bones, seeds, rocks, bugs, snake skins.  The girls would have loved that when they were little.  There was always a box full of that kind of stuff in their room.  When you get enough "points" you can trade for other items that have been brought in.  I have to admit that the Rose Rock that the girls found was a much better example than any of the ones seen at the exchange.  And last weeks HUGE Cotton Wood Borer was much bigger than the one they had on display.  Of course, if I was to have traded the one that I saw last week in, that would mean I would have had to touch it. 

I couldn't bring myself to do that. 
They dig holes in wood for heavens sake.
I don't want to give them a chance to bite me.
It doesn't have anything to do with the fact that bugs have six legs.
Or that the legs feel creepy when they crawl on your skin.

A big thank you to Bill for identifying this bug for me.  It was nice to know the name when I saw the example at the Zoo. 

It was a fun trip.  I enjoyed watching Rob and Carrie have fun as much as I enjoy watching the baby.

Sorry about the butt shot Rob.  I had one of Carrie like that but I figured she wouldn't want that one posted.  So yours was picked.  If it makes you feel any better, I am sure that there will be some girls that will see it in the picture and think "What a cute butt". 

 

It was a nice way to spend Father's Day.

Thank you both for making it such a special day.

 

Car show

The next little town North of us is Collinsville.  Historically it was much larger than Owasso.  It still has a very cool old Down Town.  So much cooler than our little Main St!  Today they blocked off most of Main St and had a car and bike show.  Lots of people showed up.

There were so many cool old trucks!  Here are a few of my favorites.

Of course there were other kinds of vehicles there.  Lots of old hot rods in bright paint colors.

Cool old school flame jobs.

And some new style flame jobs.

This one was on the under side of the hood.  Lots of detail!

There were vendors all along the middle of the street and cars and bikes parked on both sides of the street and on the side streets. 

I love the bling on old cars.  The hood ornaments, huge head lights, fancy grills and bumpers are like jewelry.

They also had helicopter rides.  I would have loved to have gone on a ride.  But I have spent too much money on other things lately. 

So I made do with walking about and taking pictures.  I wish I could share them all.  There were so many cool cars, trucks and bikes there today.  

We stopped at a fresh produce stand on the way home and got a watermelon.  It feels like summer with the heat outside and a watermelon getting cold in the fridge.  Time for me to get off the computer and get some house work done.