Day 58 - May 28th (Last day of school)

It's Ginger's last day of 2nd grade! I can't believe I have a 3rd grader. She's growing up too fast. We surprised Ginger by picking her from school with a slushie from Sonic for her and Baga (My mom, who is a 5th grade teacher at Ginger's school) with Nana (Russ' mom) and we all went to dinner at Applebee's to celebrate the end of the year. Ginger was a bit hyper and way excited to be out for the summer. She's going to spend her summer at my work and with Baga. It's going to be a fun summer, but does it really need to be sooooo long? I love my girl! She's an awesome kid and so smart. She loves to learn new things and always curious how things work. I'm excited to see what she's going to do as she grows up...but not too fast please.

Day 57 - May 27th

Beautiful weather with temps in the 60s. We slept with the windows open, I have a feeling it's the last time of the season to do that. We had a meeting at work which was awesome, but I signed a Confidentiality thingy so I can't tell you about it. I also started a new record log. I am going to be so organized and ready at the drop of a hat next time this happens, but I can't tell you about that either because everything I write can and will be used in court. My life sounds so Perry Mason. I had everything I needed this time around, it was the first time, but next time...WATCH OUT!! I'll only need seconds to hand in the book, not 2 weeks to get everything printed and in order. Yeah, I'm gonna be that awesome.

Day 56 - May 26th

What a treat it was this evening! We went over to Desi & Elivs' house just for a chat, to catch up, and let our girls play for a little bit. I haven't had the chance to spend time with them in so long and Ginger missed Amaya so much. So we got a car load of Sonic drinks and went to their home just for a bit to catch up on old times. I miss them so much and love them even more! The girls had a great time and didn't want to separate when it was time to leave. We have got to do that more often! The first picture is of Ginger and Amaya...not wanting to separate and Ginger trying her very hardest to give Amaya bunny ears. The second picture is of beautiful Desi with her gorgeous lillys. Every Easter Elvis gives her lillys. A few years ago she stuck her lilly in the ground and it was "just a stick", Elvis tried and tried to talk her into pulling that stick out of the flowerbed. But look what bloomed perfectly! Every year they get bigger and bigger. They have even thinned them out and moved some to the backyard. Those lillys didn't make it though...Elvis mowed them over.

Day 55 - May 25th (Memorial Day)

We woke up in our tent and had the greatest time planning future campouts and talking about bigger tents with more rooms and who we would invite to with us. It was so fun laying on our air mattresses in the cool morning air...until we decided it was time to go potty. Ahhhh...the luxuries we are spoiled with.

This afternoon we met Baga (my mom) and Joy and Tim at Chick-Fil-A for lunch and then we all went and saw the new Night at the Museum movie! It was a great movie! I thought it was better than the first one and I loved the first one! After the movie we went to Papa's house (my dad) to say hi and not swim. Ginger was too tired, had not had dinner, and it was too close to bedtime to go jump in the pool. That made for an exhausting evening, we heard "I wanna swim!" or "I didn't get to swim!" about 234,523 times. The first picture is of Ginger and Papa with their feet in the pool begging us to let her swim. Nope, sometimes Moms have to be the bad guy. But her teacher will thank me tomorrow. The next picture is Ginger and Papa playing catch, it was a little too short and Papa got splashed!! That almost made up for not being able to swim...almost.

Day 54 - May 24th

Today started with an eventful morning. Mom called me at 8:30 and asked me to come over. She had a kidney stone. (I know mom, I'm spreading your personal info all over my blog. I only have 10 followers and you don't read it anyway, so the chances of you finding out is close to nothing). Anyway...I went to her house and left Ginger and Russ at home to fend for themselves. I finally talked mom into going to the hospital. FINALLY!! That took a lot of telling my mom what to do...I'm not used to that. Then I got to drive really fast! I'm not used to that either. They gave her morphine and the world became a happier place. This is a picture of her hospital room. She gave me a really dirty evil look when I told her she was going to be my picture of the day, so I chose to take the photo when she was away getting a CT done. (Mom is all better now and hyped up on some really good drugs)

That night was sooooo fun! Ginger's first camping trip! All the way to the backyard! We set up a tent, bought a firepit, invited a couple of friends over, cooked hotdogs and S'mores, kicked the friends out and slept in the tent during rain. It was the best ever. There are more pictures on my Facebook. Ginger has the greatest time ever! She loved it! We even had a Chubby Bunny contest. Russell won, he has the biggest mouth. I came in 2nd with 6 marshmellows and Chuck & Tina tied for 3rd with 5 each. Ginger refused and just watched the adults make fools of themselves. We laid back and watched bats swoop down to catch bugs. We watched the fireflies dance. We listened to the rain and woke up to owl hooting. Who knew our backyard was so wild. This was a practice campout for a bigger one later this season. This was Ginger's first time in a tent and I think she's a natural born camper. Good thing, because we love camping!

Day 53 - May 23rd

Uncle Cletis' Memorial service was today. It was great seeing all the family we hadn't seen in years! Everyone grew up and has kids of their own now. What a beautiful family I'm a part of! This first picture is of my Uncle Harry (my mom's brother-in-law) holding his Great-Grandson who is 6 weeks old. The second picture is of my Uncle Harry wiping up the throw-up from his Great-Grandson. He laughed and said, "It's not the first time that has happend." The third picture is of Ginger wearing Uncle Cletis' hat. This hat was as much a part of Uncle Cletis as his left arm. Wherever he was he was wearing this hat. Uncle Cletis was cremated and Cousin Brad is going to take him on expedition and release his ashes on a mountain. That is of course after the full-blown pow-wow in June in my Uncle's honor. We are Cherokee and he was Cherokee to the heart.

Day 52 - May 22nd

Getting ready for Uncle Cletis' Memorial Service. Uncle Cletis (my mom's brother) passed away at the beginning of April (the reason for my trip to Florida). Our Cousins Kathy, Willis, and Brad came and stayed with Joy and we all got together at Joy's house tonight to make posters displaying the wonderful and adventure filled life of Uncle Cletis. It was fun looking through all those old photos, what a handsome man. This is Mom and Joy working on their posters.

Day 51 - May 21st

We got another lawn mower. I love mowing the lawn, at least until it's 110 degrees with 432% humidity. Then it will be Russell's turn to mow. There is so much satisfaction in mowing. You can look behind you and see the results of your labor. I prefer push mowers that are not self-propelled. It's like working out to the extreme and you get two benefits for the one workout. I don't know why I like it, I just really really do.But guess what?...I broke this mower too! The wheel fell off!! I had to hold the dumb thing up on three wheels!! What a workout!! We took it back the next day and the guy said that all of these had been returned for the same problem. I would think that they would notice a patern here and pull these. Oh well. The quest goes on for another lawn mower.

Day 50 - May 20th

Ginger got a splinter on the playground at school. When I was little the nurses would dig to the bone to get a splinter out. Now they aren't allowed to do anything but put a bandaid on it. So we spent the evening in "surgery" trying to get that splinter out, a total of about 3 1/2 minutes. I told her I used to wait until she was asleep to get splinters out when she was a baby. This splinter came out easily and she didn't even know it was out until she stopped talking to take a breath and noticed I was holding the splinter in the tweezers. I know, hard to believe she was talking so much. I think I forgot to mention on Tuesday that Ginger (for the second time in her life) lost her voice because she of talking too much. I have no clue where she gets that from. And it is just absolutely amazing that no amount of Mario Kart, tickeling, racing, or drawing affected the splinter. It only hurt when it was bedtime.

These pictures are reenactments, because I remembered after the fact that I had planned on this being my POTD. This is not an actual pained and scared face of Ginger. I know this is going to be hard to believe, but she is a bit of a drama queen and she is posing here. I know right?!?! How on earth did MY kid get to be so dramatic? I don't know where MY kid gets all the drama? I can prove it's not the actual surgical picture. The tweezers aren't even touching her and I'm posing too, I had to use my left hand to get the shot, I'm not left handed. It just looked better in the frame.

This really is a post about Ginger getting a splinter, not that we are a couple of drama queens that know how to work the camera. Really. I promise.

Day 49 - May 19th

This is my most favorite mirror I've ever owned and will ever own. I got it at an antique auction years ago and have loved that silly heavy thing ever since. I caught myself staring at that mirror while sitting on my couch after a nap today (wasn't feeling well and went home early to take a nap). I wondered how old it was? What's it's story? Where was it made? Was it really as old and as fascinating as I thought it should be? I wondered if it was intended to be a mirror or something made into a mirror after it's purpose was served? It kind of looks like an old western bank teller window. I don't know. I don't really like the color, but I have done nothing with it yet, so I guess it doesn't bother me that much. I wonder about that mirror a lot.

Day 48 - May 18th

Oh how I wish I could have gotten a picture of the struggle over this little pen tonight. But I was in the middle of the struggle myself, and I was not about to let go of the pen. Russ, Chuck, and I all wanted the pen but none of us want to touch it or have it touch us. Russ and I got it Ripley's Believe It or Not in Branson and it has caused much laughing and screaming. You see...it's a fake pen. It will shock the snot out of you when you click it. Really it's more of the anticipation of it that's overwhelmingly unbareable. It really doesn't hurt at all, it feels like getting shocked with static electricity. Mom was not a part of the struggle but I'm pretty sure she provoked it by the question, "Will it shock someone if you hold it but you aren't touching them?" The theory was that it wouldn't because there is no closing of some circle that has to be closed to shock someone. But no one wanted to try it out, thus the struggle was born.

The four of us still got together tonight, even in the absence of a new Big Bang Theory episode, last week was the season finale, because it had just become Monday night tradition. We dined on pizza from the new Hideaway Pizza in town and watched the movie, Taken. Scary but good.

And for those of you who aren't going to Branson soon and asked if I know where they can get one, here ya go...

http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/cubegoodies/a4f4/

Day 47 - May 17th

We learned today that it is official, I broke the lawn mower. I bent the shaft, not just the blade. It's gone. It's done. It's ka-put. I really enjoy mowing, it's one of my favorite chores and I'm sad I have to wait until we get a new mower until I can mow again. Russell is just sad that we have to get a new mower. But on the upside...I have a deep freeze! It's a domestic dream come true! We cleaned and cleaned with bleach and now it's airing out. Isn't it pretty? I can't wait to fill it with meats that may be forgoten about for years!

Day 46 - May 16th

We spent all day at Nana's. This is a picture of Ginger and Sophie, Nana's dog. Ginger helped take care of Sophie and Nana while Russell and I cleaned and sorted through the basement/Russell's storage for the past several years. We finally got through it and loaded some items we thought we could use...AND...a deep freeze! I've wanted one of these for years! YEA! It's not light either, but we got it out of the basement and loaded on the truck. We left Nana's house about 5pm and on our way back stopped at Papa Randy's house (Russell's step-dad). He lives in Ramona, a teeny tiny town and where Russell graduated from High School. I brought Raul, my gun with me to show Randy...an avid hunter. We set up a sheetrock target against a wood pile and shot a few rounds with Raul and his WWII German Lueger! I realized I hadn't shot a gun in about 10 months!! The targets show that it's different shooting outside than in a gun range, that's my excuse anyway. On one shot in particular I thought that I had split the sheetrock. But when we went to retrieve the target we realized that I had shot a caterpillar. There was the bits and pieces of a caterpillar and his guts running down the board. Ginger spent the time hiding in Papa Randy's shop (Huge and beautiful shop!) riding on a tricycle that Randy had made many years ago. It's a big tricycle for older kids with some all terrain wheels. That thing was fast and went over the gravel and grass like it was going down hill. The picture is of Randy hitching a ride on the back of the tricycle. It's not very clear, but it shows the fun we had.

Day 45 - May 15th

Elain (Russ' mom/Nana) had shoulder surgery in Tulsa today. After work Russell drove her back to Bartlesville in the truck (so we could bring stuff back from Russ' storage in Bartlesville) and Ginger and I drove in Nana's car! A red Mazda Miata convertible. It was the first day in 20 days it wasn't raining for a couple of hours. We put the top down and cruised all the way to Bartlesville. Just a couple of red-headed chicks in a convertible with the music loud and dancing down the highway. We had so much fun waving at truckers and passing Russ & Nana several times. Ginger loves that car and she learned new things about an old car. "LOOK! This rolls the window up and down, I've never seen it like this before." as she rolled the handle around in a circle while figuring out how to get the window down. I never thought that that my little girl only knows electric windows. Wow, do I feel old. When we barely beat the rain and pulled into Nana's garage in Bartlesville I told Ginger to roll up her window. She looked at me with her "teacher look" and asked me if I knew how to roll up these kinds of windows.

Day 44 - May 14th

It's been exactly one year ago today that my house was broken in to. That's all I'll say about it. It's been a year, life is better now and better things are in the place of what was stolen.
Tonight was Bunko night! Laurie, Shelley, and Gwen skipped out before I remembered I needed a POTD. I grabbed Ginnette out of her car, made Ellen come out of her house, and Val had to walk back down the street. I love my Bunko group! I've been in this group for EIGHT years! That doesn't seem possible. Wow! Time flies. These girls that I see once a month have been through a lot together. Babies and adoptions, marriages and divorces, tears and lots and lots of laughter. We aren't only Hot-Dice-Rolling-Bunko-Babes, we've become stability, something that has always been there, something we can count on month after month...at least to me. And yes, I spell Bunko with a "K".

Left to right: Tiffany, Ginnette, Erika, Lauren, Valerie, Courtney, & Ellen. We missed you Joy, feel better soon.

Day 43 - May 13th

It's hot. Not only did it reach 91 degrees today, but our air conditioner went out. It needs a new compressor. I hear that's expensive. Don't really care, I just want to be cool. Praise the Lord for our attic fan and the huge storm that rolled in. We were nice and cool all night long.

We can always tell what Ginger is learning in school by what she wants to show us when she gets home. She's learning the difference between Fiction and Non-Fiction. In my head, it has always been reversed. To me, Non-Fiction should be Non-True. That's how my head sees it, and it's the same with thermostats too. If you want the air on, you should turn up the air, which means turn up the thermostat. Right? It doesn't really matter because our airconditioner is broke. Anyway...Ginger has learned it the correct way and she absolutely loves to learn new things and gets so surprised to learn new words and how things work. I'm such a proud momma. Tonight she wrote a story for us to read at bedtime. She and I were the stars of her story. I wonder if she recently heard the phrase, "When pigs fly."? Definately going in the scrapbook.

A Fiction Story by Ginger

When I woke up from my sleep, my mom said I could ride on a flying pig to school!

(click picture for a closer view)

Day 42 - May 12th

Today was a windy and rainy day, just like the previous 19 days have been. But I know better than to complain, come August we'll be wishing for a tiny shadowing of a single cloud. I have been working on tons of paperwork (see yesterday's post) and gathering all the information in a somewhat-almost-sorta-kinda-not-really-but-maybe-in-my-head organized fashion.

I hate ants. Today's picture: Ant Poison.

'Nuf said.

Day 41 - May 11th

Big day. We met with my attorney today. It's the beginnings of what I hope is not a big huge drawn out process. My attorney is great and I highly recommend them! I used the same guy in my divorce a couple of years ago. His name is Ron Fraley from Winters King & Associates. They are so nice there and will even pray with you if you want them too. I don't think I can go into details of it on here, so I'll leave it at this was the first day of getting the ball rolled in my direction. And, it's going to be a very busy few weeks. Thank you Lord for awesome men of God working for you in the legal system! Miracles do happen!

Day 40 - May 10th (Mother's Day)

Aside from being very sore and exhausted (see yesterday's post) it was a great Mother's Day. We went to church at New Heart with my mother and then met Joy & Tim for lunch at Goldie's. It's not fancy, but we're not fancy people and we didn't have to wait in line for 2 hours. After lunch, Russell & Tim took my mom to go see the new Star Trek movie. Joy, Ginger, and I went to Purple Glaze. We used to love this place and went all the time. Now I remember why we took the break, it's expensive!! Actually, it's not too bad, I'm just not very good at being patient. I hopped up (more than once) to get another piece to paint while waiting for another to dry. I had three projects that day. We had fun, all three of us are very creative and love to paint. This is a picture of Ginger working diligentaly on her ladybug. She did a great job. And it wasn't until later that Joy asked if I noticed it was reversed. I hadn't noticed! Neither had Ginger. It won't be ready for pick-up until tomorrow, then I guess we'll see if Ginger notices.

Day 39 - May 9th

It's work on the house day! We have another house in Tulsa. It's Russell's old house. He had renters living there that failed to mention there was a leak. Long story short...the foundation sunk in 6-8inches in the very center of the 2-story house. Like a sink hole. He had to gut the house, raise the walls back up, and is now rebuilding it himself. With the wonderful help from his mother, myself, and Ginger. And from the pictures I've seen, he's had a scattering of very dedicated friends come and help with some very huge projects. They had to re-lay the foundation inside the house, with the walls still up!! It's been a big mess. But now we're down to the final stages. Today I spent 4 hours mowing the yard of it's first season mow after 3 weeks of rain. Yeah...I'm sore. Russell, Elain (Russ' mom/Nana) and Ginger hung a whole wall of sheet rock, complete with an arch cut out. Ginger made sure the wall was covered in her artwork, stories, and tic-tac-toe. We were all exhausted by the end of the day, but we got a lot done!

Day 38 - May 8th

After an exhausting week Russ called my mom to keep Ginger tonight. We needed a date night. The only problem...we are exhuasted...hence the "exhausting week" as mentioned above. We did what we do best. We rented a couple of Redbox movies (Bride Wars & Last Chance Harvey) and we took Chipotle home. We cuddled on the couch, dined on Chipotle, really enjoyed Bride Wars, and found Last Chance Harvey boring and too true to what life could be. We didn't finish that movie and moved on to Spider Man 3 that we found on TV. I fell asleep just as Spider Man was covered in that black goo. Did everything turn out ok? Did Spiderman live? Oh, the suspense. Oh well.

Day 37 - May 7th

My mind was elsewhere today. But my camera was used...for work purposes, but I did get a shot. So here it is, another work photo. This is the underside of a circuit board. I was trying to show the solder points. But I thought my thumb nail looked pretty good in this shot, needs some cuticle cream, but it wasn't as disgusting as I thought it would be.

Day 36 - May 6th

We sold the car! Good bye wonderful and fabulous orange Mazda. You served us well and you were tons of fun. Enjoy your new family. You and your sunroof will be missed. Zoom Zoom.

We believe that it was a total God thing! We’ve had that car for sale for several months, and NOTHING! ZILCH! NADA!

When we did sell the car, we were going to use the extra money to go on a family vacation. We were working with a travel agent on Monday on booking a cruise. I had a few more questions and called the travel agent one more time before paying the whole trip up-front, but he didn't return my call before I left work. Russ and I talked and decided, it would be tight, but we would go ahead and plan the vacation even though the car hadn't sold yet. After the car sells, we'll pay off the vacation. But if we could just sell that car, it wouldn’t be an issue. That night is when my life changed (I can't say much yet) But our first order of business was that we needed an attorney, but how could we pay for one? I personally know they can be EXPENSIVE!! Within 2 hours of that life changing event, we got 3 emails from people wanting to see the car. Between then and now, we’ve had 7 people interested in the car, 3 came take a look at it, 2 who said they would give us cash, 1 was going to come from Tennessee to see it. We had our pick of who to sell it too. If we had sold it just 4 hours earlier, we would have put the non-refundable money into our cruise. But God knew better, now we have the money for an attorney. Praise the Lord! He is awesome!

The first picture is of the guy leaving the bank walking to his new car, our old fabulous car. The other picture is him driving away...Zoom Zoom!!

Day 35 - Cinco De Mayo!

Feliz Cinco De Mayo!! Ok, so other than a Spanish Holiday, this day was emotionally exhausting as well. The whole day. I'm exhausted. I'm preparing for so many things, still none I can share on here. My dad asked us if we wanted to go "Cinco De Mayo It" tonight. So what else? We went to eat Mexican!! Yummy Mexican at El Tequila! We all had a great time! Ginger was especially giggly and kept hugging and kissing on Daddy (Russell). This is a group picture of all of us at dinner (minus me). Going clockwise, starting with Russell. That's Russell...then Ginger...my sister Joy, her hubby Tim, My Daddy John, his wife Phyllis (a fan of my Picture of the Day), and Phyllis' niece Renee. We covered all the possible topics, jokes, whether or not my grandparents really exist, cars, embarrassing stories, work, Renee's finals and college, her boyfriend, and of course...the Swine Flu. Oklahoma's first case was confirmed today.

Day 34 - May 4th

Wow. What an emotionaly exhausting evening. Great day. The regular rainy Monday. I like the rain, so these weeks of unending rain don't bother me a bit. We had the usual gang over for Monday night, Big Bang Theory, Chuck and Mom. Just as they were leaving at 9pm tonight, we had another visitor show up on my door that changed my life. I don't think I want to share too much on a public blog. But as time goes on, pieces of it will show up on here...maybe. After going through tons of emotions, praying, and relaxing with Russell we went to bed. I remembered I hadn't gotten my picture of the day. Russ was so sweet. He knew how important it was to me, at that emotional moment of my life, it was. He got out of bed, stumbled around the dark living room and found my camera. We laid in bed and played with the settings until we got this shot of a window in our room. The shutter was open for 13 seconds. I didn't feel like taking a picture of anything else. Just the little light that was coming through the window. But I still loved it...I loved perfecting the timing and holding our breaths for 10-15 seconds over and over until we got it just like I liked it. It was a great way to relax to help go to sleep.

Day 33 - May 3rd

A lazy Sunday afternoon, just me and my girl. My guy was on another date...with my mom. They went to the new X-Men movie. Ginger and I lounged around on my bed with some crayons. We are a goal-oriented family, we love charts and graphs, and enjoy competion, and at times maybe a little too much. Today Ginger and I made some new charts. We made an Exercise Chart that will have a winner who finishes their goal first. We also made a Vacation Chart, to chart our savings for our Family Vacation. We decided to go on an Alaskan Cruise this summer. They ain't cheap, so we're putting all of our efforts together to make this vacation possible. And...hopefully start teaching Ginger the value of budgeting and saving.

Day 32 - May 2nd

It was a very special night tonight. A few days ago Ginger asked Russell if he wanted to go on a date with her for his birthday. Just the two of them. He said yes and then said, "How about Incredible Pizza?" She ran and hugged him and said, "You're a great parent!" So tonight, Ginger got all dressed up and Russ even left and came back, rang the door bell, greeted her with a rose, and helped her with her jacket. He took her to Incredible Pizza. They had a wonderful time. I stayed home and cleaned the bathroom. I got to be home alone...we all had a great time. And again, it's my blog and I can put more than one picture on here if i want too. They were just too precious not to put it on here.

Day 31 - May 1st

A failed attempt at a family game-night birthday for Russell turns REALLY fun!! Several family members came down with some serious illnesses and we're unable to attend the party. (It's not the Swine Flu) We decided to postpone the birthday family game-night. But I had already bought the cake, and Tammy had already bought dinner, so we went ahead and had a fun dinner anyway! We had so much fun, just the 5 of us. We had yummy pizza (It was Digorno, not delivery). Then we played several rounds of Sequence! My team (Me & Cliff!!) won 3 out of 5 games!! Whoooo hooooo!! Ginger played a few rounds, then got bored and had fun drawing on a dry-erase board that Tammy had bought for Pictionary. I had taken the perfect Picture of the Day, Russ and Cliff (Russ' Dad) concentrating hard on their next Sequence move. But then...Ging showed us the surprise that she drew. It's a family picture of the three of us. I loved it! So I wanted to make that the Picture of the Day. So now...there's two. It's my blog and I can do it if I want too.

Day 30 - April 30th

Full day today. We went to a funeral of a friend of ours who lost their 9 year old son. He's been crippled since birth. It's hard for me to think of their situation and I wonder if they don't feel a bit of relief?

We also went to Carraba's with Dad & Phyllis for Russell's birthday. We love the Lintle Soup - YUMMY!! Dad and Russ hit it off with a lengthy nerdy conversation. I shall quote my father now, "I found a nerd on my level."

After dinner, our friend Laura came over. She used to be in the group that "lived" with me. (I had a group of friends that came over every night and stayed LATE, and sometimes I would wake up with people asleep on my couch. Laura probably did actually live with me though for several months. She still owes me rent money.

Laura and I love to talk, giggle, and I'm not sure really what it is, but it's always fun and for some reason always ends up in my bed. We have slept countless nights on the couch, not on purpose, just falling asleep during one of our lengthy conversations. We moved to the more comfortable bed, and somehow that's just where our best conversations happen...either there or in a tent. ;o) Although, they happen a little less often now that I'm married, and Russ kicks her out of his spot at the end of the night. There have been many of bedtime converstaions that a camera has showed up. And one showed up tonight in honor of "Picture of the Day." Out of about 200 shots, we agreed that this picture with our eyes closed and heads cut off, was the best. But one thing for sure, our converstaions are always "educational".