may day

wow! it's already may 1st! i can't believe i let a month go by without blogging! i've missed it.

so here is a summary of what's happened in my life since easter weekend...

when i left my school good friday afternoon, the bradford pear tree closest to my room was in full bloom! so beautiful. of course i couldn't pass it up without taking some pictures, and apparently i wasn't the only one liking this tree at this particular moment!

that saturday i went on an adventure with lisa! we started out by stopping at a storage place near my house that was having a sale in the parking lot. i scored big at this sale! a DS game, a tin with sewing knick-knacks (including buttons) and a bowling ball with the bag all for $5 dollars!!! i now own my very own bowling ball! how cool is that?

someone at this sale sure liked funnels....kind of weird if you ask me!

speaking of weird....this statue of liberty was standing on a corner in claremore trying to get some business. i wouldn't have gone to that tax service just because of this "statue" on the corner...super creepy!

then we stopped at a junk/antique store in chelsea. the store itself wasn't all that great, but the owner lets people sign the outside of his store! legal vandalism!!! f.u.n.! neither one of us could resist!

i also tried a blue coconut cream slush from sonic for the very first time. it sounded better than it tasted! it wasn't bad, but i think i'll stick to the orange cream slush!

poor colby man felt terrible that weekend. he had fever off and on the whole time. it never actually went away. we just kept it down by alternating tylenol and motrin. we went to waffle house for supper that night and all he wanted was bacon and chocolate milk.

once his medicine kicked in he felt well enough to create a little something for the easter bunny. we were at our house in BA so we didn't color eggs, and all of our decorations were packed. since "necessity is the mother of invention", the boys found a way to make something for the bunny because they "needed" him to leave some easter goodies for them!

later that week when colby was feeling better, the boys and i went to birch lake one afternoon after school to look for rocks. i'd bought some acrylic paint, and i was in the mood to paint rocks. (i don't really know why.)

we didn't have much luck finding the right kind of rocks to paint, but i enjoyed being by the water. i always like being around lakes, rivers, ponds, oceans, etc. it's so peaceful to me. and the boys enjoy throwing rocks in the water, so it wasn't a wasted trip!

saturday spencer went to BA with daryl to mow the yard, and colby and i went on a little field trip. we started out garage selling, but that was a waste of time. some friends at church own a rock shop here in town, and they've been asking me to come visit it. so i thought, "why not today?" i had no idea what we were in for!

the whole family was at windle's rock shop, and they gave us the royal treatment! we got to go behind the scenes where mr. windle fixes watches and shines up all kinds of rocks. colby got to pick out a geode and watch mr. windle's machine cut it open, look at a watch under a microscope, see how planes are made from aluminum cans and learn all about a kind of coral that's found here in bartlesville! we even got to see dinosaur poop! what a fun and educational excursion!

after that we headed east to nowata. that wasn't our final destination, though. we had martha (our GPS device) with us, and we pulled up a list of oklahoma cities. colby picked bushyhead, oklahoma as our final destination because it was a funny name! on our way there, just outside of nowata i passed this sign for bowling ball yard art. curiosity got the best of me, and i just had to turn around!

this place was so cool! it was on someone's property, and they didn't care if you got out and looked around. all of the "artwork" was made out of bowling balls!!!

bowling ball house....

bowling ball pool table....

bowling ball bobber....

bowling ball A.....for amy!

bowling ball C....for colby!

this is the entire alphabet made with bowling balls!

bowling ball fence....

bowling ball lady bugs...

bowling ball caterpillar...

this pig was around the corner from the bowling ball place. pigs are so stinkin' cute i just had to stop and take a picture!

bushyhead, oklahoma turned out to be about 1 square mile in size, and it was kind of scary. so we set out for bartlesville by way of lake oolagah. it was a beautiful lake, and we found lots of great-looking campsites if we ever want to go camping.

martha led us all over north-eastern oklahoma that day, and i had complete confidence in her guidance until we left the lake. of course i had NO idea how to get back to bartlesville so i was completely relying on martha to get us home. at one point she told me to turn left, so i did. the paved road turned into a dirt road which i thought was no big deal because she'd led daryl down a dirt road before. we had seriously doubted her, but it turned out to be a short cut!

so i just kept going. but the longer i drove the narrower the road became, and the muddier it got. before i knew it we were in the middle of nowhere with what looked like the lake a few feet in front of us! that's when we noticed the smell of rotten carcasses.... i knew then that martha had led us astray and we needed to get out of there!

i looked out my window and quickly figured out where the smell was coming from. there were 3 dead coyotes all piled up together! not just one....THREE! then out the other window i noticed bullet casings. i started imagining myself in a horror movie, and i started backing up real fast! i scraped my car on a big branch that was sticking out in the narrow road, and when i looked in the side mirror to see the damage that's when i noticed a child's shoe was also in the road! all of these terrible thoughts of scary backwoods dwellers came pouring into my mind, and i was scared! i thought martha was mad at me or something!

we did manage to get out of there alive (obviously), but i'm not going to be so trusting of martha when i'm the one driving!

you can't tell in this picture, but the water's edge is just a few feet ahead of us, and i remember the woods being a lot thicker and darker than this! the dead coyotes are to the left and the bullets are to the right!

sunday was a normal day. (thank goodness!) colby chose chinese for lunch, and this was daryl's fortune! giggle...

the boys and i finally found some rocks to paint, so one afternoon we sat outside and created little masterpieces!

spencer painted abraham lincoln on one of his rocks!

this is colby's collection.

spencer's collection.

my collection.

these two are my favorites!

i also bought a 96-count box of crayons that week. i {heart} crayons!

another night the boys and i went on a mini excursion looking for some of the coral that mr. windle had told us about. he told us about a field where those kinds of rocks were everywhere. we didn't find any, though.

spencer found some sort of skull,

and i found a leg!

i also went for a cookout that week with an awesome bunch of 3rd and 4th graders from my school!

last saturday night our school had a fundraiser at the american legion. we hosted a bingo night! i have never seen real bingo in my life....those people were serious! i was afraid to even sneeze! the very first game some lady won $70!!!

last sunday the boys and i went to caney, kansas. we didnt' exactly know what we were doing, but we ended up at the safari zoological park. they weren't technically open, but the owner said he had a church group coming in for a tour and we were welcome to join them! what a nice guy!

it was so amazing. i love animals anyway, so this was right up my alley. we were only a few feet from all the animals...not like at the zoo where you can't see many of the bigger ones. the man explained every animal, and we got to feed some as well as hold some!

the first thing to hold was a ginormous boa constrictor!

yes, i actually wrapped that around my neck, mom! he had just washed her off so she was very cold, wet and HEAVY! spencer got up the nerve to hold her, too, but colby would only touch her with one finger!

i also held part of a baby alligator. the guide/owner held the head so it wouldn't bite anyone. colby wasn't afraid of the gator, but spencer stayed back!

the coolest part was feeding the lemurs! they let us walk right up to their cages and give them animal crackers! the lemurs are so adorable!

these monkeys were LOUD! it's like they were jealous of us feeding the lemurs. as soon as our group got near the lemur cages they started screaming and running everywhere! it was so hard to take a picture of them, but i finally managed to get a picture of this one. her name is nellie!

i don't remember what these things are called, but they were so cute! they like animal crackers, too, and they only live in female colonies. they go meet up with the boys when necessary, but in the wild only the girls live together! hmm....

the baboons were pretty amazing, as well. they would catch the animal crackers if you threw them one at a time! and they were little beggars!

the lions were beautiful. their roars sent chills through me.wow. such a powerful animal.

gorgeous leopard.

a few years ago there was a story about 3 white tigers who were born in captivity, and their mother rejected them. a golden retriever who lived there nursed the 3 cubs and there was a huge media event about the whole thing. it happened here!!! these are the 3 cubs!

the owner told us the amazing and inspiring story about how they were going to have to close down safari because it wasn't making enough money to sustain them. (his wife is a teacher, and you know teachers don't make enough!) he said they prayed to god for a miracle by august 1st, or they would have to close down. on july 27th, the 3 white tigers were born. 2 days later, word of the story spread and people came from all over to see this extraordinary dog and her cubs! safari was saved, and god was glorified! he shared this verse from hebrews 10:35-36 with us:

"So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised."

god is good!

the brown bear, cujo, was spencer's favorite animal.

safari also had 2 hyenas! did you know that hyenas have both male and female parts? i didn't either! i learned something!

this is the white tiger that abandoned her 3 cubs.

this is lily. she's a sweet monkey!

heart rock in the parking lot!

on the way back, we stopped at copan lake just to see what it was like.

the boys loved the playground!

i found another heart on the playground, only this time it was the inside of a walnut.

last tuesday night, the boys and i had supper with the stewarts at red robin...yum!

(abbey had my camera, so the next 2 pictures are courtesy of her!)

yum-o! red robin's fries dipped in ranch dressing!

and that's basically it!

hopefully i won't be gone so long next time!