In need of Momma's touch

This past weekend Lonnie and I headed to Medford to help the kids with their house. Kendra has been asking me to come help her for quite some time now but we were so busy with school pics that I wasn't able to help until now. Kendra and Kaleb live in a very cute 2 bedroom house that is in need of a lot of TLC! The potential is there, it's just finding the time and money to give it what it needs. Kendra wasn't sure what she wanted to start on first because every room in the house needs work! Inside and outside! We decided that if we didn't get some shrubs and flowers planted it would get too hot for that so we decided to start outside. Here are some before and after pics. We still have a lot that we want to do, but you have to start somewhere Right?

 



We left plenty of room to add more color with flowers.

 



We were even able to get work out of both of the boys. Kendall Replaced the porch light and Kaleb assembled the porch swing.

 



We decided that the porch swing needed a little color! Who doesn't love a porch swing?

 

                                                           And a nice relaxing chair.

 

I think it turned out nice. We even gave the mail box a face lift.

 

                          Did you notice the Medford Cardinal perched on the mailbox post?

Ivy loved the water. At least Kendra will never have to water her yard alone.

 



I hope everyone had a great weekend.



 







 





Oklahoma and Tornado's

 

 

As many of you know through local and national media, Oklahoma was hit very hard this tornado season. Yes...here in Oklahoma we have a season for tornado's. It comes around every year just like summer, fall, winter and spring, we Oklahoman's just expect it. On May 20th it was no different. All of the local weather stations had been warning all of us for days that we were in for a very dangerous day. They had even pin pointed the estimated time that the storms would hit. On this day Lonnie and I were in Ardmore miles away from the danger but my mom and several of our employee's were at the studio. I didn't want to take any chances so I called mom and told her to get to my house. ( We have a safe room) And I called the studio and sent all of the employee's home. Lonnie and I were able to watch the news on my I-phone weather app while we were on the road. Now, I have lived in Oklahoma most all of my life and I have seen many tornado's come and go and I have seen the devastation that they leave behind...BUT I have never witnessed anything like what happened in Moore!!

Lonnie and I live in Norman, which is about 15 miles south of Moore. We do a lot of shopping, dinning and of course we frequent "The Warren Theater". As the night went on and we continued to watch the destruction and began to hear about the fatalities we were shocked! Shocked could not even describe how we felt when we actually saw the damage for ourselves.

 

 

We use to go bowling here. The building is completely leveled!

 

And of course, if you follow me on facebook you know we go to the Warren Theater often. It is still standing and has since opened. Lonnie and I went and watched "Fast and Furious" last Thursday. It was so different.

 

Just when the clean up started and we didn't think it could get any worse than that...May 31 happened. Again the local news had been warning us all day about the possibilities of tornado's. Living in tornado alley you know that most tornado's track north-northeast. I've never heard of one hooking back south. Well there is a first for everything and it just happened to be a little to close for comfort for me!!

My cousin Barbara is a Red Cross Director and was in town for the May 20 tornado. We had plans to go out to eat at a Japanese Restaurant. I wanted to take her to one in the city but with the storms north of us Lonnie said that we better stay around here. Again we were keeping up with the weather via my I-phone weather app. We got seated and ordered our meal. Everything was going well...glass of wine...Japanese chef entertainment...then we heard the sirens! Ok, ok I thought, they are being very cautious from the last storm, no need to panic! Right? Um..Wrong. The weather man is telling us that the tornado took a sharp right hook and was headed right for us!! Still I was calm. We paid our bill, chugged our wine and headed to the car to go home. ( The safe room!) Again I have seen a lot of tornado's but the feeling in the air and the look in the sky's were very different! It was very scary!

 

I was still very calm at this point and then we came around the corner and saw bumper to bumper traffic!! Apparently everyone was headed South to try and out run the tornado!

 

Ok at this point people were acting a fool and cutting other people off, jumping the median to drive the wrong way on the wrong side of the road, and ... well, this is the point I panicked!!  The sirens were going off,  people were honking and there was no feeling what so ever in the air. That's the best way that I can describe it! We made it home safe and sound just very shaken, but we were alive and safe.

The rebuilding will continue for years! But it will happen! That is one thing you can say about Oklahoma is that we do not give up! We will rebuild and come back stronger!

GOD BLESS OKLAHOMA!



 

 





HOUSE PROGRESS

We have PROGRESS!!! On June 26th a crew came in and poured the footing for our dream home and since that date things have been happening so fast...which makes me a very happy camper! 

I felt so bad for these guys because it was so hot out there but I guess they are use to it because they never complained.

On July 10th they had the "Safe Room" framed up and ready to be poured.

And on the 11th the framer's were framing the house.

By the end of the week this is what we have!! 

Now I would say that is PROGRESS!

Work is very slow in the summer. DUH!  When you take school picture's for a living and school is out during the summer, it's pretty much a no brainer! It's kinda nice to re-group...re-organize...& sleep in!!! Here is just a little bit of our slow paced...relaxing week.

(sorry for the blur...but you can get the idea)

YES THIS IS A ENTIRE VAULT FULL OF WINE!! AND NOW WE OWN EVERY BOTTLE!!

If you know Lonnie...you know that he can sale anything, but what you might not know is that he can get a bargain on just about anything too. Lonnie has an old friend that owned a liquor store in Norman for several years and he sold his building and was wanting to get rid of all the inventory. The building use to be an old bank. Lonnie stopped in to get me a few bottle's of wine and Rob took him over to the old vault and asked Lonnie how much he would give him for the entire room. Well after a couple of numbers were thrown out they settled on $250.00!!! Yes $250.00!!! There is approximately 500 bottles of wine here people! The bottle's ranged from $6.00 to $63.00...now I would call that a bargain!

With that much wine you need the proper wine glass! Just kidding...We bought it to put all of the wine corks in.

Now this is what I'm talking about! And yes that is Lonnie's redneck wine glass that he so proudly drinks his wine out of! 

Saturday we got up and headed to the Local Farmer's Market. I was wanting to make some homemade Pico (Thank you Patty Moreno for the recipe!) Lonnie's childhood friend has a stand at the Norman Market 

And here is the delicious Pico! YUMMY!

Later that afternoon we drove around Thunderbird Lake just for fun and we came upon this set-up. It just cracked me up! You know you're from Oklahoma when you hang window units out your car window! LOL!

Saturday night we went to the Casino to just hang out for a while and found out that Wade Bowen was in concert. Of course they were sold out, but Lonnie knew the lady at the ticket booth and got us tickets 4 rows from the stage! (Again another BARGAIN!!)

I know that this post is a little bit of picture overload but oh well what can I say ... I LOVE PICTURE'S

Thanks for stopping by...I hope you have a great week!

Farewell Grandpa

Early this week I received a call from my mom. She called to tell me that they have put my Grandpa in a Hospice Care facility. He was dying! We knew that his health had been declining very rapidly, but no matter if you expect it or not...it still hurts! My Grandpa lived a good 89 years of life. He has accomplished many things in his lifetime...many I am sure I don't even know about. He is a war vet., he was a very talented athlete and even survived being shot during a robbery while serving on the Tulsa Police Department. The list goes on and on! One thing I do know is that my grandpa was a fighter and he fought up until his last breath! Here's to you Grandpa...I love you and you will be missed!

 "Pistol Pete Annex" 

1949 Tulsa Hurricane Football Quarterback.

Lonnie and I went to visit Grandpa on Wednesday and he woke up a few times and seemed to be aware of what was going on from time to time. By Thursday he was not waking up at all. They told us that when your kidneys shut down you kinda put yourself into a self induced coma. Early Friday morning his breathing became very labored and because of all of the fluid on his lungs he began to rattle with every breath. Mom called me around 10am and told me it wouldn't be long so Lonnie and I headed to Tulsa. I bet we weren't there 1 hour before he was gone. 

My mother was great! She was by his side to the very end, holding his hand and rubbing his face very tenderly. I knew that when I got there Friday she was exhausted! This picture was taken literally 10 or 15 minutes before he died.

My Mom and Dad.

Mom moved over by dad so that the nurse's could turn Grandpa and then another nurse came in to give him a breathing treatment. We were all just sitting there watching him and I saw his eyes open. He began to look around and I leaned over to mom ( who was hugging my dad at this point) and said "He has his eye's open!"

For some reason I knew what was happening!! It was the strangest feeling! Mom went over to him and it was like their eyes locked!! She grabbed his hand and everyone in the room moved closer to his bed. With his daughter holding his hand and the rest of us surrounding his bed he took his last breath! It was a great feeling not to watch him suffer anymore...but a terrible feeling knowing he was gone!

The facility the my Grandpa was blessed to be placed in is called Clarehouse. It is truly the most amazing place I have ever been in! 

It is such a peaceful place to be, which is weird because everyone there is dying! They only have 8 rooms. Each room has a balcony overlooking beautiful landscape.

Volunteers brought in home cooked meals daily. Everyone there was so nice and comforting! The nurse that was in the room with us when Grandpa passed hugged each of us and cried with us! I can't express how great these people are! They are true angels from heaven!

After someone passes, the nurse's light a candle outside of that person's room! This is Grandpa's Candle.

They have 2 beautiful fish aquariums within the home. They were gorgeous.

When the family is ready and after your loved one passes they let you release a butterfly in their memory! I had to head back so I didn't get any photo's of this ceremony. But here is a pic of the butterfly cage.

Again this place and the people who work and volunteer their time here are AMAZING!!

Services for Paul Annex will be held Tuesday July 3, 2012 at 11 a.m.at Rose Hill Mortuary. 4161 E. Admiral Tulsa, Oklahoma 74115.

Any Memorials can be sent to Clarehouse Hospice 7617 S. Mingo Rd. Tulsa, Oklahoma 74113.

Thank you all for you thoughts and prayers for our family during this time. It is greatly appreciated.

Mini Family Vaction

Lonnie and I have been together for 2 years this coming December and to this date not all of our children have had the chance to meet. With this being our slow time, Lonnie decided to rent a pontoon boat and a house at Grand Lake for the weekend. Still, not all of our children were able to go but at least we were able to take 3 of them.

I would definitely have to say it was a success. We all decided that we would make this a annual trip. We even called it the First Annual BrewFos Trip! 

We decided to head out at 9 am Saturday morning and guess what...it was raining! Great I thought. Oh well I guess we will just go with the flow. And I'm glad we did because by the time we got to Grand the skies had cleared!

We rented a house that was on the golf course at Shangri La! Need I say how beautiful it was!!

We checked into our house and then it was off to get the boat.

(This picture was actually taken at the end of the day, but oh well at least we remember to get one)

And we're off!! We had a great day! The weather was great and of course we all got way too much sun, but it was a good time had by all. This was me by mid afternoon.

Kendra, Darci and Kaleb.

Me enjoy my weekend.

Lonnie and I at the end of a very good day with the family.

We enjoyed ourselves so much that we have another trip planned to float the Guadalupe River  in Gruene Texas. And this time it looks like Kendall gets to go.