the flea

this morning i went to the tulsa flea market with lisa and jacob howe. i was in the mood for treasure-hunting again!

we found lots of fun stuff!

like this adorable owl high chair.... {didn't buy it}

and these cups to add to daryl's collection! {bought 'em}

and i don't know why, but i bought this little gilligan that was just laying in a box of junk. there's something about it that just made me smile! {and i used to watch gilligan's island all the time!} he looks so cute in my printer's tray with all my stamps!

there were buttons EVERYWHERE! this one booth had jars of buttons, buttons on cards and trays of buttons sorted by color! i was drooling......especially when i saw a whole tray of bakelite buttons! {didn't buy them...yay me!}

this booth not only had buttons out the wazoo, but it also had all kinds of vintage sewing stuff! it made me want to be a seamstress or a quilter! it even had sock monkeys!!! {didn't buy them}

unfortunately, though, not all of our encounters at the flea were happy ones. there was one booth that was selling these really cool stretchy shirts. i didn't know what kind of fabric they are made from, so i walked up to the booth and unfolded one just to look at it. the lady running the booth walked up {didn't say hi or how are you today} and said, "that one is for size small to large. the 1x and up are on another table."

GASP!!!!! i couldn't believe it! i realize that i am a large woman, but i don't need some rude sales lady telling me! i just dropped the shirt i was holding and loudly said, "well! i guess she's telling me this isn't my size!" and walked away. the nerve of some people................

i realize the picture of her is blurry, but i don't want to show her face. jacob walked back by the booth and took a picture of her for me!

photo of the day #191

how rude

quote of the day: Whoever one is, and wherever one is, one is always in the wrong if one is rude. ~Maurice Baring

chenille

photo of the day #190

knitting again

tonight i picked up my needles and started knitting again. it's been a while since i've knitted, but after reading the book, the friday night knitting club, i wanted to knit.

i started this black scarf a while back. i'm using chenille yarn, and i don't like it very much. it's hard for me to use because it doesn't slide off the needles easily. but i'm too far into it to turn back now! so i'm going to finish it and start another project! i'd like to make an afgan....i haven't done that yet!

quote of the day: I like making a piece of string into something I can wear. ~Author Unknown

wagoner

spencer asked me if we could go antiquing today! i nearly fell over when those words came out of his mouth! and since that request is RARE, we immediately hopped in the car and headed for wagoner, oklahoma. i had been to one antique store there a couple of months ago, but i didn't have time to visit them all.

we didn't find much today, but we had fun hunting for treasures anyway! i found an othello game at the first store. i had to buy it because it brought back memories of playing with my sister when we were kids. she always beat me! spencer and i played tonight, and we each won 1 game. tomorrow it's mom vs. colby.....

i didn't buy this kool-aid man pitcher, but he sure was cute!

however i did buy that little ring you see in the bottom right corner of the picture. it's made from half a dice! i'm sure it's probably a real piece of junk, but i thought it was too cute!

daryl will be very proud of me......i didn't buy a single button today! i had MANY opportunities, but i resisted.

photo of the day #189

antique co-op

the other sign outside this store read, "come on in! we're bigger than we look!" and it was right! this rugged little building had tons of goodies! and the couple that ran the store was so nice! he told me a story about selling 2 huge baskets of buttons to a lady for $250! and the lady said she got a steal of a deal.

he and his wife used to own the antique store in broken arrow that is now the hitchin' post. at the time they had decided to get out of a building and just hit antique shows, but now they've resettled in a store in wagoner. he also used to be the in-school suspension teacher at a school here in BA years ago! i told him i had a hard time believing he could do that job because he seemed too nice. he said, "trust me. i can be mean if i have to!"

i guess part of the reason i enjoy antiquing, a.k.a. treasure hunting, is because of the stories, memories and people associated with the old stuff. i love walking into a store and seeing something from my past! it just makes me smile.

quote of the day: "Mom, can we go antiquing?" ~Spencer

lake murray

it seems like forever since i've blogged! time to catch up again!

we just spent the last 3 days at lake murray, oklahoma with our friends matt, judy, katelynn and courtney. we had such a good time, and {surprisingly} made it home with no major injuries!

while matt and judy stayed in their camper, we got this happy little cabin up by the lodge. i was honestly expecting it to be nasty, but it wasn't bad at all! it had lots of windows so there was plenty of sunshine to wake us up early in the morning!

we didn't do much sunday. we bought our groceries at the ardmore wal-mart, ate some mexican food at el tapatio {yummers} and then hung out at the harrell's camper. we played FarklE by firelight and snacked on s'mors {double yummers......} "everything is better in nature," right, matt?

photo of the day #185

s'mors

monday we rented an island cruiser that was powered by a wave-runner. talk about fun!!! this was a first for me. i must admit that i was quite scared to ride the wave-runner. {i just kept having flashbacks to the time i went rafting down the colorado river when i was pregnant with spencer. i was ejected from the boat and landed on rocks! it was not a happy experience.}

daryl and i were the first ones to test out the wave-runner. i was the passenger, and he was the driver. he didn't really know what he was doing, so he kept stopping and we'd start tipping forward!!! i just knew we were going to fall off that thing in the middle of the lake and there was no way i'd be able to hoist myself back up! thankfully, though, he got me back safely to the cruiser. i decided it was much happier on the boat than on the wave-runner with him.

photo of the day #186

riding the waves

the boys {mine and judy's} LOVED the wave-runner! they took turns for the next 3 hours riding that thing all over the lake! judy and i were content to hang out on the boat and jump in the lake when we needed to cool off. but later on daryl asked me to ride with him again. he promised it wouldn't be scary this time because he figured out how to drive it correctly. i was really hesitant to get back on, but how could i resist that cute face? {and he was right. it wasn't near as bad as the first time he took me out!!}

on the way back to the marina to return the boat, we had a minor incident. matt was driving the boat, and spencer and daryl were sitting at the front dangling their feet in the water. since the boat is powered by a wave-runner the top speed is 4 mph. judy and i were up on the top deck when i heard matt yell, "get the camera!" i thought he was shouting that because there was something cool to take a picture of. then i heard someone hollering about losing shoes! when i looked over the edge i saw my flip-flops floating out to sea and half of the bottom deck was under water!!!! no one really knows what happened, but all i know is that my camera ended up in the water on the floor of the boat!!! ugh......... {luckily there was no permanent damage done. i guess the camera needed a day to dry out and get over the trauma because it started working yesterday afternoon!}

that night we played more FarklE and ate some more s'mors!!!

tuesday we headed north to turner falls.

{photo by matt}

it had been years since i had been there, so i didn't remember very much. i definitely didn't remember how incredibly cold the water is there!!!! matt took the kids to climb up the falls while judy and i nervously watched.

then for some strange {and stupid} reason judy and i decided to take the kids up to the castle that's built into the side of the 'mountain'. now i know you're thinking, "what kind of mountain could there be in oklahoma?" but trust me...........this castle was way up there! we had to climb a gazillion steps to get to the top! even colby got so tired on the way down that he sat down on the steps to rest!!! {my knee and calves are still sore today! i'm old!}

finally we found a happy spot at the blue hole pool. this is a place where the falls end up. it is a big natural swimming hole. there was a gigantic slide and diving board which spencer loved, but i found a better place up in the shallow water where the water just flowed over me while i sunned myself on a rock like a turtle! ahhhhhhh......

after dinner that night we went to the dock to do some fishing. actually matt and the kids fished while judy and i just sat on the dock and talked.

daryl discovered the game bookworm on his phone so he spent the fishing time playing that! we all enjoy nature in different ways, i guess!

this one little spot had so many things to take pictures of.........heaven!

i love this picture of courtney and colby! they were stuffing things in a "snake hole."

as judy and i were sitting on the dock, i was taking random pictures of the area around us. this next picture is so cool! i had my head turned as i took the picture, so i didn't see the fish jump. i heard the splash and wondered if i had happened to capture the creature that made the noise on camera. and sure enough, i did!!!! what a fluke!

photo of the day #187

fish out of water!

after fishing it was back to the harrells' for bananagrams and s'mors! {are you seeing a pattern of our evening activities?}

today was our last day together. we spent it at the beach by the marina. i have to confess that i wasn't exactly thrilled about the thought of swimming in a lake because i always pictured lake water being brown and nasty. but lake murray TOTALLY changed my way of thinking! the water was clean, clear and just the right temperature. we're already talking about going back again next year!

photo of the day #188

searching for seashells

{picture taken by daryl}

unfortunately, i got a little too much sun today so i am glowing!

quote of the day: "NO WAKE!" ~Matt and Daryl {inside joke}

happy birthday america!

independence day has officially become my 2nd favorite holiday. {christmas will always be #1.} i love just being with friends laughing, relaxing and watching fireworks.

tonight about 35 people from church came to our neighborhood clubhouse for a 4th of july party. the food was delicious and the fireworks.........so cool! the people in and around our neighborhood set off the most amazing fireworks! it's 11:00 pm and they are still going strong! i love it!

what i also love about the 4th of july is all of the awesome pictures! check out some of my favorites from today: (we had rain all morning which was a blessing!)

photo of the day #184

sparkler art

quote of the day: God bless the U.S.A.

happy almost independence day!

except for the temperatures, i love this time of year! swimming, cookouts, friends and fireworks! awesome.

tonight we went to a former student's house for their annual fireworks show. his dad and our p.e. teacher at my school have their licenses to shoot off the BIG fireworks....professional fireworks.

they asked each family to bring a dessert to share. spencer generously offered to make ours. i didn't have much on hand, and i had forgotten about taking the dessert. so i told him to get my recipe box and find the recipe for no bake cookies. {yum-0} he wanted to make them all by himself, and i thought this would be no problem. {bless his little heart.}

photo of the day #183

spencer's no bake cookies

first he didn't know what a saucepan was, and then it confused him that the first direction said to put the last 5 ingredients in the saucepan and bring it to a boil. wow. but he kept insisting that he didn't need my help even though he came back and forth to my room several times while i was watching t.v. finally he stopped asking me questions so i thought everything was under control. then i heard, "mom! will you come help me, PLEASE?"

ok. if you know what kind of cookies he's making, then you know that they are supposed to be brown because one of the ingredients is cocoa. the mixture in the saucepan was still the color of oatmeal, and it had big lumps of butter in it. so i asked, "why is it this color? did you use all the ingredients? did you bring it to a boil?" one look at the kitchen counter told me he'd used all the ingredients because there were remnants of them all over the place! anyway......

as i took the spoon from him and started to stir the non-brown mixture, i quickly began to realize the problem. "did you stir the 5 ingredients together before you brought it to a boil?" i questioned. spencer replied with another question, "was i supposed to?" HOLY COW! how can you not know to stir the stuff together???

so in his defense, i just looked at the recipe, and he followed the directions exactly as they were written. "In a saucepan bring the last 5 ingredients to a boil. Boil 1 minute. Remove from heat and add oatmeal and peanut butter." nowhere in the directions did it mention stirring. and since he's a very literal person, he did it just like it said.

i was afraid to take the cookies to party, but they looked ok. i stirred and stirred until the mixture became the right color. they barely hardened enough before it was time to leave. so we didn't do a taste test. i ate part of one at the party. the flavor was good, but the texture was like taking a bite of the beach! the sugar had not melted, and so the cookies were incredibly grainy! i'm sure he'll get it right next time! i just love that he enjoys cooking!

on the way to their house we stopped by "america's favorite drive-in" for a drink. mmmmmm.....lemon-berry slush on a warm summer night....refreshing.

i didn't know most of the people there, but that's ok. the boys had some friends there, and they had a great time running around and being with kids from school again. i just sat by myself and enjoyed the breeze for a while. and then caleb, my former student, joined me and we got to talk. he's such an awesome young man! {and he still says i'm his favorite teacher ever! aww...}

at 9:30 the show began. the fireworks were amazing! we were so close to them that the ashes and sparks were floating down on us! so that means the explosions were close to us, too! these pictures don't do justice to the awesomeness we saw tonight! {and we get to see more fireworks tomorrow night at our own 4th of july shindig!}

quote of the day: Police arrested two kids yesterday, one was drinking battery acid, the other was eating fireworks. They charged one and let the other one off. ~Tommy Cooper

{it's a joke. you're supposed to laugh. read it again!}

thickers

since the only pictures i took today were of thickers, they have earned the title

photo of the day #182

thickers!

thickers are thick stickers. most of them are letters, but there are some that are just shapes. they come in different types of materials like vinyl, foam and even fabric! i found these at big lots yesterday for $2 a package! that is a steal of a deal! so when i told geeg about them, she and E decided they wanted some, too, but there is no big lots in jenks.

when i went to big lots tonight to get them some thickers, there weren't near as many as yesterday! gasp! someone else discovered this treasure, too! bummer!

i got to hang out with geeg and nellie tonight! it's been WAY to long since we've all gotten together. we talked for over 2 hours. very nice. {if i had remembered to grab my camera before i left, i would have taken a picture of the 3 of us and that would have been my photo of the day! sigh.......}

quote of the day:“Trust in what you love, continue to do it, and it will take you where you need to go.” ~Natalie Goldberg; author, motivational speaker

bowling

today we finally used our bowling passes from kidsbowlfree.com. the boys each get 2 free games per day during the summer. all you have to pay for is shoes!

before we left spencer and colby decided that we should use fake names when we bowled. i was spongebob, spencer was patrick and colby was gary. {for those of you non-spongebob fans, patrick is spongebob's best friend, and gary is spongebob's pet snail.} our bowling passes, however, have our real names on them. so when i went to pay when we were finished, the girl at the counter asked which lane we were on. when i said 30, she had a strange look on her face she kept looking back and forth between her computer and our passes. finally she asked, "who are spongebob, patrick and gary?" i laughed and told her we'd used fake names. the other guy at the counter just laughed at her, too! [sorry for the confusion.]

the best part of bowling was we picked just the right time to go. every wednesday at 2:00 it's glow-bowling! we didn't know that, and we were in the middle of our game when suddenly the lights went off, the disco lights started flashing and music started playing! it was awesome! it's so much more fun to bowl with black lights and 80's music! there was even a boomerang pattern on the floor that only showed up during glow-bowling!

before glow-bowling.........

during glow-bowling........

photo of the day #181

glow-bowling shoes

quote of the day: "Having children is like having a bowling alley installed in your head." ~Martin Mull {that is so true sometimes!}