Memories of Yesterday

Caleb and Grandma

Checking out

Her Ride

Ok, it isn't pretty, but this is what I drove for the last several years of my job at the Enid Police Dept. She was a lot like me. Old, out of style, but yet very dependable. She got me to work and back (on most days!). She would cool me in the summer, and keep me warm in the winter (most days). Sometimes she needed a little babying, and sometimes she just needed a good rest. Sometimes she needed someone to check under her hood to keep the engine running!!!=) And sometimes she needed her battery recharged. Yelp, she was a lot like me. The paint was cracking and chipping, she had sags in places she shouldn't, and definitely had squeaks and groans usually upon start ups. But one thing I can say about this old gal, she was mine. She had all my stuff in the trunk, (or back seat) she got me to lots of places for many years. Others made fun of her, (sometimes me too) yes we were the joke of the town. Sometimes she would quit on me, for she just got tired. But after a good rest and a quick trip to the car hospital she would come back to me revving to go. So after all these years (she is a '93 model) I knew I was getting ready to retire, so I decided we needed to take a couple of pictures with ole Betsy and me. She chased the bad guys, went to schools, pushed people out of the road, served her community well. And then there is the car!!! Some things just need to be put to rest.

Busy but Fun Week

Lunch with an old Friend

This week has been very busy. Today we ate lunch with a friend of ours from Enid. He drives a truck for Atwoods (in case you can not read it on the truck) which is a farm and ranch store very popular in Oklahoma. (and Texas too Cara!) So he parked on the side of the road to eat with us.





When Mike called he said he was in Broken Arrow headed home and had no more hauls for the day. Did I want to meet for lunch. That was cool. Had not seen Mike in a very long time. We used to eat at Long John Silver in Enid when Mikes wife was not eating with him. She did not care to eat there I think so I would go with him. It was a standing joke between the three of us. So we ate there again for old times sake!!! And guess who called while we were eating???????



Mike and I have been friends for years at the police department. Do we really look like two old retired cops??? Not really huh? You know what else we have in common??? We both are glad to not be working there any more!!!! He drives for Ryder and I stay at home. We are both very happy. It was great seeing him. Can you believe he used to write more tickets than you can shake a stick at, and now he dodges the tickets.

Sunday Night with Steph and the kids.

Sunday night we went with Steph, Trent and Tori to a walk through trip to Bethlehem. It was well put together and interesting. It was cold that night so after the 30 minute journey we went inside for apple cider and to look at the animals. Tori loved the bird, he was very entertaining.

Potato Soup and Family

I had been promising Uncle Jerry to return his cake pan for over a month. He had made me a banana cake (the best!) and even my dad had one for his birthday and I was to return both pans. I keep forgetting!!! Even sat them by the door, by my purse, still forgot. So this time I put the cake pans in the car and told them I would bring soup and the pans.








We all had soup and salad that day. Good food and good company. It was a very nice day. The soup turned out wonderful. Baked potato soup, my favorite!!










Aunt Peggy had put together a puzzle. She had hip replacement surgery about six weeks ago so puzzle time was a must. This is a beautiful puzzle and she was giving it to my mother. I told her we were headed out to the house if she wanted me to take it to mom. It is only sitting on the white board so we decided to wrap it with cling wrap. That way it does not blow/fall off that board and I have to try and put it back together. No thank you.





It has been a busy week, one of the best weeks I have had. I love my family and friends and I love not working so I can do these things.

Our Sapulpa Home

Our New Home in Sapulpa

This is our new little home in Sapulpa. We really do like it, for several reasons. First I think it is cute!! Second it is only a half mile from my cousin's house. She actually found the house for us. The area is just so nice and close to many things. We are about a mile from Sahoma and Pretty Water Lakes, we are two miles from the turnpike for ease of driving to anywhere, we are a few miles from Tulsa and just a few miles from Sapulpa. This house is located in just a perfect place for us. You hear nothing down here at our house. It is sooooo quiet. Might be due to all the trees.

This is the back yard, well part of it. It is actually an acre of land fenced off for the dogs, or kids depending on what we have at the time. (Actually my dogs are my kids!) There is plenty of room to run and play, room to explore, and plenty of trees to have shade. Most of the trees are all trimmed up so no low branches for climbing. I think that is good. We might have to build a tree house later.

This is the front yard looking to the south. We have a ravine running through it and I love the way it looks. In this area there are lots of trees, and rocks. Sure makes for a beautiful scene every where you look.
More of the front yard, this time you are looking towards the East. You can see a little of the our driveway, we have a circular drive, and it heads to the street (cul-de-sac). There is a house over there, and another one to the north east back in the trees. one other house sits south of us but you just can't see them except winter time when the leaves are off the trees. You can hear kids play once in a while. You might hear dogs bark once in a while. And you will see deer walking through, then you really hear dogs barking, MINE. And of course where they are oak trees, you have tons of squirrels. then you hear the dogs bark, MINE AGAIN. But all in all, this little house is just cute as can be. It is laid out very nice and I love the location so much. I just wish I did not have so much "stuff" to put in this small home. Garage sale this spring!

Jinxed

Ok Jill, you win. Today is not nearly as good of a day. It all started with yesterday being so dag-gom good. So good that I did not get to eat dinner until 10:30 at night. Scott made a couple hamburger patties for us. He ate it as a sandwhich and I did not. At 3:00 this morning I was paying for eating that late. At 3:30 I was paying for it again. Oh my, I do not feel good. But I get back to sleep and get up with the dogs around 8:00 this morning. My back has been hurting, don't know what I did, but it is hurting. I took some of my back pain medicine and it is not affecting it any. Man, I don't feel good. But I told my aunt and uncle I would make them soup and bring it by today. I don't plan my day nearly as well as I did yesterday, but I was only 15 minutes late. I called to report in though so they would not worry about us. The soup was good!!!! The company was great. My stomach got sick again. Good grief. My back hurts and my stomach hurts, what is wrong with me. I drive out to mom's house to see the new carpet, it looks nice, I love green and that is what she got. I want some new carpet and I want green too. Man my back hurts. Came home and the dogs have not torn anything up much, that's good. Get them fed and now I need to just make a fire in the fireplace (yes it is cold outside) and just relax for the night. I have a Dr. appointment tomorrow thank goodness. I hope this is not another flare up of my gall bladder, we are leaving on our cruise in just one week. I can not get sick now. I just can't not have this. But I think I know what it is, this pain, it is Jill stabbing my voodoo doll with a pin.....

A Really Good Day

Greetings and once again happy holidays. Has anyone started getting the bah-humbug syndrome yet? Well I can honestly say I have not. In fact yesterday was one of the best days I have had in ages. Let me tell you the story....

First Scott got up early to go help my parents with the laying of new carpet in their house. No, they are not doing it, but having it done. My dad was gone hunting (remember those man things we talked about earlier?) and left mom home all alone. You see it just happened the carpet people could get mom's carpet done that day if she wanted it before Christmas. That was a no brainer. Dad's trip was already planned and paid for insuring he had to miss out on the whole experience. (way to go dad!) So Scott was going to be there for safety reasons. Come to find out there had been a double fatality in the area and the electricity was out. So another reason for Scott to go. He had a generator and could get the lights up and running so the guys could get the job done. All this to say, the dogs crawled in bed with me and we slept late after Scott left!!!!! That was the start of my very good day. After sleeping in and finally getting up, I made my way to the computer room. I had an email from a former high school DARE student that I have kept up with for years. I had not heard from him in about a year and was starting to get a little worried. I had taught his wife as well and had met his children. Brandon is in the military and once again is in Iraq. HE EMAILED ME TO SAY HELLO!!!! It brought tears to my eyes. It was soooo good to hear from him. He is one of the neatest young people I had worked with and always liked him. Oh man, I so far am having a very good day.
I went through the mail that had been piling up, got some stuff cleaned up, did a little laundry, watched tv, so far it just had been a really good day. I had decided to do a few more Christmas projects, I can't say a whole lot about it for I do not know who all reads this. But something that is really, really important to me was able to be accomplished by Christmas. So I dedicded to order some for all my family. I think it will be a great Christmas. But before I can order this I have to get to Tulsa and give them the items needed. Well I had gotten my shower earlier, I fixed my hair, well combed it at least, went outside and the weather was BEAUTIFUL. Oh yes, a really good day to be out. I needed to mail my Christmas cards to the grandkids and a couple other things, I needed stamps for my future Christmas cards so I went to the post office. My first time going there. I found a parking place, went in and waited my turn and got everything done in such a nice timely fashion. I bought some really cute stamps for the Christmas cards and that was exciting. Never have done that before. This is a really good day.
Now I am headed to 71st and Lewis. I do not know where that is, but I have a map in the car. Oh I see, no big deal. I am already in Sapulpa so instead of driving back north and getting across the river I will just drive out east of Sapulpa on highway 117. I actually know what I am talking about. And it was sooooo easy. Left at McDonalds and straight to Highwas 75, north to 71st street and right to Lewis. That was no big deal. I was afriad I was going to be really far south and it would be a long trip and I just didn't know if I really wanted to do it. Silly me. I stopped and got gas (remember it is a beautiful day) got 22.7 miles to the gallon, not great but not bad for all in town driving. I head out to my destination and found it with NO PROBLEM. Oh my, so far this is a really good day. I go inside and place my order after talking with the salesman who assures me this can be done and be done by Christmas. I sure hope everyone will be as excited as I am at Christmas when they get this.
Now I had better run by Hobby Lobby and pick up this Policeman shadowbox that I wanted for Christmas. I will pick it up for my mother and she will give it back to me for Christmas. I hate knowing what I am getting for Christmas, but we have tried and tried to get this shadowbox for other a year and never have seen it. But my cousin found it for me and had them save one (the only one) back for me. I find Hobby Lobby with no problem, well that is after calling mom and telling her what I am doing and asking her where the store is located. I drove right to it. And it was a couple or three miles away. I found the store, they still had the box back for me and I paid for it. It was that simple. And half off too. It was a little more than I wanted and it was not nearly as cute as the fireman shadowbox that I bought for Scott last year, but it is cute. That's cool. Now I need to go to the grocery store.
I go back the same way I came to Tulsa, enjoy that drive, need to remember it is really easy for future reference. Got to Reecer's made a deposit at the bank located inside (Chris is cute and friendly, but I missed seeing Lisa who usually waits on me.) and started shopping. I found everything I needed and then some. So I have holiday treats to make and junk food to eat. Yes, it is a really good day. I get home unload the groceries and everything is just going great. I get a call from Caleb saying thank you for his Christmas present (we wanted him to open it early since they are moving around Christmas time). Then of all things Caleb and I were talking about Magnetix Dinosaurs and he got so excited. That's it, if that kid finally gets excited about something then grandma is going to get it. Now here it is starting to get late at night, shipping and handling is too expensive and not guarenteed to get here by Christmas but Target has some instore. Ok, off to the store I go. It is dark out, I don't know my way that well, Scott is riding shotgun, we find Target and they have the toys. I grabbed all three that they have do the rest of my shopping for Christmas, all except for my dirty Sants gift and there was hardly anyone there. Oh my goodness, it was a really good day.

Santa Ornaments

Santa Tree Topper

Santa Decorations

Painted by Thomas Kinkade

There are over 90 different ones

I think they are beautiful.

My mom bought me Santa ornaments this past year for my tree. I collect Santa's and she saw these and started my collection. She then decided I needed all of them before Christmas and ordered them. There are over 90 of these. In fact I think there are 108. I do not have the last six I think is what mom said. But if you look closely each Santa has a very special painting on his coat. I love them. I wish I could show you the whole tree all finished, but I can not get close enough to show you much detail of the ornaments and the whole tree. So I hope you get an idea by these pictures. Merry Christmas.

Christmas Tree

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree, Your branches do delight us. Ok, that may not be the words to the song but it is something like that. I love Christmas time. The tree, the sounds, the songs, the smells, the family gatherings, and of course I LOVE THE GIFTS. I love to give gifts. It makes me feel so good. I wish I was rich at Christmas time just so I could buy more gifts for everyone. I would love to be a super hero and come in to save the day for so many people on Christmas Day. So this is my Christmas tree trying to get decorated. But it did not start out like this. Of course not, let me tell you the story of our Christmas tree....

The Christmas Tree Dilemma

We decided to not put up a real tree this year for fear that Rudy might think it is indoor plumbing for him.=0


So we bought our first artificial tree. I have looked all over Tulsa for a tree. Not just "a" tree, but the right tree. And after my job that I wrote about in a previous blog, I felt I was a pretty good judge of tree character. A connoisseur of Christmas trees if you will. So we found this tree and I REALLY liked it. Got it home, put it up and "fluffed", (oh how that brought back memories!) and turned on the lights.....so pretty. Wait, do not tell me. There are several branches at the bottom that did not light up. You should be able to see it in this picture, bottom right branches. Good grief. I just spent an hour fluffing that tree. I would have sworn those lights were working earlier.




"What's wrong dad? Why aren't the lights working? What's wrong?" Callie is such a good girl and always there to help.



I swear they understand what is going on in our house.









And they are always wanting to help.
" Move over will you I will check that side."
" No, you move over and let me in. This is mans work. "
" Yeah, well I bet I can figure it out first, girls are smarter."
" No they aren't!"
"Yes they are!"
Kids, you just have to love them.





"I told you girls were smarter!"
"No they aren't"
"And they are tougher too!"
"No they aren't"
"Oh yes they are!"
"Oh no they aren't!"





Ok, so now we have figured out the NEW Christmas tree is not going to work. We paid too much money to not have it work perfectly so it is going back. But I want my tree up today. So I check the adds and Sears has a nice one for $100. less than this one. Let's go!!! It is 9:00 pm. and they will close at 10:00. We are going to run quickly to Tulsa and grab this tree for today is the only day it is on sale. Scott said to put the dogs up and lets go. I said no, they can stay out, they are sleeping on the couch and if we turn the lights out they will just go to bed for the night. We had even just taken them outside to pee pee for the night so they were all settled in. We turned off the lights, (left the tv on for noise in the house) and left. We even tried calling Sears just to see if they had it. I did not want to drive all the way over to North Tulsa from Sapulpa and then they not have it. By the time Scott got through to someone and they transferred him THREE times and his patience ran completely out, hung up on them, we were there! We had less than 30 minutes to find a tree and get it paid for. The electricity went out! Someone in the store had not reprogrammed the store for the later hours during the Christmas holiday. Now the cash registers are down. We have about 20 minutes now. I found a tree I liked, the one that was on sale, went to the place to get it and they said it is sold out. I asked the girl if she could check on it for sure. She said she would, but this was her second day in this department. ( I think it was her second day at work!) She was gone for a while and came back saying there was one left. Thank you Lord for small blessings! We had to go to a different cash register, pay for it and then run out the door to go to "pick up". We get there just before 10:00, Scott goes to get the tree, they bring it out on a Dollie, IT IS HUGE. So after MUCH finagling we finally got it into the Honda. That was stupid to bring my new car, but I wanted to drive. I can not see out the passenger side window what so ever. Oh please do not let me get stopped by a Cop. I don't even want to try and explain this stupid move. Scott is in the back seat trying to be the passenger side eyes. We made it home!!!

Scott is trying to get the tree out and I decide to get the house opened up for him...... Oh MY GOSH. The dogs DID NOT sleep like I thought they would. oh no, not at all. They had gotten into a sack of ribbons and balloons that mom and dad brought over along with a bunch of my decorations for Christmas. They had strung/drug the ribbons all and I do mean ALL over the living room. Pink and white ribbons were ALL OVER THE LIVING ROOM FLOOR. There will not be a picture of that. I was telling Scott, begging Scott, do NOT come into the house. I knew he was going to be furious with me. Because not only was there ribbon but there were brown piles all over the carpet. I could not believe it. I had just taken them out not even an hour ago. I can not believe this. Wait. It doesn't have that familiar smell. What in the world is this???? Good grief. They have gotten into the fire started logs and chewed them up all over the living room floor. In fact, Callie grabbed a big chunk and took off with it. I yelled at her to drop it and she just kept on going. Scott had to go get her and physically take it out of her mouth. She would not give it up. I am grabbing all the mess, trying to get the ribbons gathered up and I notice that not only have they strung them all over the living room floor, they have even gone AROUND the Christmas tree. Good grief. I guess it is true, when the cat is away the mice do play. Sleep, are you kidding, soon as we shut the doors, those kids partied. I guess I learned MY lesson.