OKC Trip - Mold-A-Rama Machines

I grew up about 50 miles from the OKC Zoo and we went there often. One of our favorite things was to collect these plastic molded animals. There was a machine that created your animal while you watched.

They still have those machines at the OKC Zoo and my kids got to experience the pleasure of creating their own plastic animals.

OKC Trip - The Zoo

We had alot of fun at the zoo. At one point we were looking into a bird cage that had huge Condors inside. All of a sudden one of the condors swooped down and hit the cage right in front of Madi. Everyone took off running. Even, Bob!!! I told him he was supposed to try and save his children...not run for his life. LOL.

We had alot of fun taking pictures with the Chimp statue.

OKC Trip - The OKC Bombing Memorial

We come here to remember those who were killed, those who survived and those changed forever. May all who leave here know the impact of violence. May this memorial offer comfort, strength, peace, hope and serenity.® - Oklahoma City Memorial

Wow, this was a powerful place. I could have spent all day in the museum, but we had the kids with us. They were interested, but patient enough to stay there all day. At one point, Carlie grabbed my hand and said "I want to leave this place, it makes me sad." I cried when we got to the room that had the picture of each person who died. Madi ran off somewhere and brought back a kleenex. I hadn't even noticed them. Then she hugged on me and offered comfort in her sweet way. Libby just could NOT comprehend that someone could be so evil as to blow up 168 people.

It happened to be Junior Ranger day. And the kids completed a booklet and then were sworn in as Junior Rangers.

Trip to OKC

We went to Oklahoma City this weekend. Bob was supposed to run a half Marathon in the OKC Memorial run. But by the time we got there, all the spots were taken. My in-laws were also in town for a medical appointment, so we stayed at a hotel together. We had a great time going to the zoo, swimming in the hotel pool and visiting the OKC Bombing Memorial. Pictures to follow!!!

Working Out In The Field

This is a picture of me and two co-workers. I am in the middle. Normally we work in the coporate office. But this week, we actually went out to the pipeline terminals to work with the field guys. It was a fun trip. I got to go to the top of a 150,000 bbl tank.

It's a Long Story

I came home from work the other day, and stopped a minute in the driveway to talk to Carlie who was playing in the yard. I went in the house and put up my purse and laptop. She came in the front door and there was a long red welt on her check. I was 90% sure it hadn't been there a few minutes ago.

I asked her "What happened to your face?"

She ducked her head and said "Ohhhh...it's a long story. And I don't really want to talk about it right now."

I hit the rewind button on that really quickly. She didn't want to talk about it because she'd been playing with a large bamboo stick she wasn't supposed to be playing with. And she'd hit herself in the face with it.

Ha Ha Ha. It's Catching. Hamsteritis

This email is from my sister.

So now I am the proud owner of a little black and white hampster named Ike, thanks to you! We got a gray one and Parker was holding his box on the ride home when he let out a scream. The stupid thing bit his finger and drew blood through the little hole in the box. I did a u-turn and promptly exchanged the little rat b@st@rd. LOL This one is very cute and friendly. Morgan has only let him out once so far - LOL. The kids are thrilled.

Hamsters to the Exponential Power

So I posted a couple of days ago about buying Madi another GusGus. She was so happy to have two hamsters again. And she named the new one GusGus II. I figured we'd forget about about II after a while.

The NEXT MORNING, I'm in the shower and I hear screaming in my bedroom. The cat runs through my bathroom and into my walk-in closet. And then comes Libby, and then Madi and then Carlie in hot pursuit. I stick my head out of the shower and ask "What's going on?!?!?"

Hunter is in my closet and he has dropped the hamster on the floor. I tell Libby to shut the door to the closet and I will look for the hamster in there after I get my clothes on. But before she can get the cat OUT of the closet and shut the door, the hamster goes streaking across the tile bathroom floor. So I bound out of the shower (yes, naked of course) and of course, I do not have my contacts in, so once again I cannot SEE. Water is streaming off my hair. The tile floor is now wet and slick, and I'm scrambling around (yes, naked) trying to catch the dang hamster.

I'm finally able to corner it. It is normally a ligh gray and white color. But it is so wet from the cat's mouth and the wet floor that now it is dark gray. And I'm just a bit hesitant to grab it...it does look an awful lot like a mouse. But I suck it up and grab. And it IS a hamster. I look him over, and he has no obvious injuries, but he does look a bit glassy eyed. I had the girls bring the hamster cage to me and put him inside.

I went to go check on him an hour later before I left for work. He was all dried out, and I couldn't tell him apart from the other two hamsters, so now we have THREE hamsters.

Madi decided to change his name from GusGus I to Lucky. LOL. Will I EVER learn? Probably not.

The critter is definitely Lucky. If the cat had caught him an hour later, the house would have been empty. The cat just happened to run by Libby who happened to be in my bedroom and she happened to notice that the cat had the back-end of a hamster sticking out of his mouth. He's escaped the jaws of death twice!11

Day Dreams About Night Things

It was cold and rainy all day Sunday on Easter. I was chilled, so in the afternoon I laid down in the bed and covered up with a blanket. I wasn't intending to take a nap, but as soon as I got warm I was asleep.

Bob came in an hour later and asked "Are you going to sleep all day?"

From under the covers I apparently replied "Let me ask my Dermatologist about that, and I'll get back with you."

Must have been a good dream!!!

You'd Think I'd Learn About Hamsters!!!

Madi LOVES animals. She wanted a rabbit for her birthday. I talked her into getting two more hamsters instead. She named them Tiny and GusGus. They are drawf hamsters and about 3 inches long. They are so cute.

But we'd only had them two days when a catastrophy happened. I woke up to a crash at 3am, and knew immediately what had happened. Our cat Hunter had knocked the cage off into the floor. The plastic cage had popped apart and the hamsters were FREEEEEEEE!!!!

Now keep in mind that I am LEGALLY BLIND without my contacts in. I rush in there and by the time I get there, Hunter has a hamster halfway in his mouth. The hamster's head is sticking out and it is going "Eeeeeek. Eeeeeek. EEEEEEEEK." I grad the cat by the scruff of the neck and shake him until he lets go of the hamster. It runs under the bed. Madi is on top of her bunkbed shrieking hysterically. Did I say that it was 3 AM.

I get ready to crawl under the bed and Madi yells "There goes one in the closet!!!"

I'm not sure if it is a supreme act of athletism on my part (blind just out of a deep sleep) or sheer luck. But I pounce on the hamster and manage to catch it.

We looked for GusGus for an hour. I finally told Madi that I HAD to go to sleep.

Today after work, I got her another Gusgus. It wasn't her fault the dumb old cat knocked the cage over.

Still Goofy, After All These Years.

Ages 1 month, 12 months, 3 years and 4 years.



Ages 6 years, 7 years, 9 years and 10 years.

Still Goofy, After All These Years.

Hoppy Easter

We had a nice Easter Weekend. The Pools came to spend the weekend in their RV. Memaw and the kids and I went to see the Hannah Montana movie Friday night. And on Saturday we went to a big Easter Egg Hunt in Augusta. They said there were over 12,000 Easter Eggs. I believe it.

Our Marriage

My hubby is not the romatic sort. Today he sent me the following quote. The email chain that followed really shows how our relationship functions. LOL.

“Today I begin to understand what love must be, if it exists… When we are parted, we each feel the lack of the other half of ourselves. We are incomplete like a book in two volumes of which the first has been lost. That is what I imagine love to be: incompleteness in absence.”
-Goncourt-


On Thu, 9 Apr 2009 08:41:16 -0500, Pool, Julie wrote:
Awwww....that's sweet. I'm the first half of the volume though.

Bob's Reply

I thought you would see it that way LOL!

The Size of Uranus

For some reason all of my kids have been studying planets at the same time. It started when Madi brought home a picture book about Uranus. Which brought to my mind all the silly juvenile jokes.

Then this weekend, Frank had to do a project on a planet. And he picked...you guessed it....Uranus. So he's working with Bob to print pictures off the internet, etc.

This morning we were getting ready to go out the door to eat lunch, and Carlie and Frank are having a heated discussion about the planets. In particular they are arguing over whether or not Pluto is still really a planet or not. I had stopped paying attention to their conversation until Carlie shouted. "FRANK, Uranus is bigger that the whole entire EARTH!!!!" Bwhahahahaha. Indeed it is. Indeed it is.

Jeepers Creepers, Where'd Ya Get Those Peepers?

Frank and Libby got contacts this week.