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.

Home Sweet Home

We are finally going to have a big girl & boy home! I am so excited! Lonnie and I have been living in what we call the cave for over a year. The cave is actually an apartment that we have above the studio. Don't get me wrong...it is very nice, BUT it has no window's (hence the name "CAVE") The other draw back is that it is in the building that we work in, which for me makes it hard to stop working because I know all that I have to do is walk upstairs. We had been talking about getting a home away from here for about 7 or 8 months. We slowly started looking last summer. At first we were looking for a home on a lake but we decided to  find something a bit more permanent. We drove around several housing additions until we found the one that was perfect for us! And here it is!!

Welcome to Landrun! While driving through this neighbor we found a home that was for sale and we called the number on the sign. The guy gave us the code so that we could go inside and tour the home. I fell in love with the house. The floor plan was perfect! There were a few things that I would have changed if I could have. The house had been on the market for a long time so we did not feel any rush to jump on it. Boy was I wrong! Yep you guessed it...IT SOLD! I was so upset! After a few weeks of being disappointed, Lonnie came to me and told me that the builder had a lot for sale in the same neighborhood that he thinks we would like better and we did! We were SOLD (literally)

We bought the acre lot and are having the exact floor plan built with a few minor changes to suit our liking. 

This is where our new home will be...the corner of Black Bear Trail & Boomer!

We are having the house built at a angel on the lot and hope to have Boomer for our street address!

BOOMER SOONER!

This will be the view from the front of our home.

This will be the back view of our home.

We hope to break ground within the next few weeks. I will keep you posted so stay tuned!

Pain in the Neck!

I am 41 years old and I have never been to the Chiropractor. I have never had the need to. To tell you the truth, I have always been afraid to. If it ain't broke, don't fix it...RIGHT? Well, it finally broke!! I went to bed Wednesday night perfectly fine. When I woke up Thursday I had a slight pain on the right side of my spine, under my sholder blade. I thought nothing about it...I've given birth to a 12 pound kid with no medication... I can handle pain!!Ha Ha...or so I thought! Just a few hours later my pain level was at about a 5. Lonnie had talked about how great going to the Chiropractor is and when I told him I was hurting he asked if I would go. I thought...what the heck. We loaded up and headed out only to get there to find out that they don't open until 4 pm! Oh well...OK, so we came back to the studio. 4 pm rolls around and we are the first one's in the door. The doctor does x-rays and some other test and come to find out I have a pinched nerve and a vertebrae out of place. He said the vertebrae seems to be an old injury. REALLY? I never even knew it! Anyway, he put me on the stim machine for 15 minutes and the adjusted me. I could feel it go into place instantly! It was amazing! I left there feeling so much better. Lonnie had to work an event that night so I stayed at the cave and decided to spring clean! If you know me you know spring clean means cleaning out cabinets, drawers, dressers, closets...etc. By 8 pm I could hardly move!!! My pain was so bad that I even cried!! Lonnie had to help me roll over durning the night and as you can imagine I didn't get a whole lot of sleep. I was suppose to be back in the chiropractor's office at 11 am but Lonnie called them first thing this morning and they told him to bring me in ASAP! They put me on the stim machine again and he adjusted me again but said it was mainly just muscle tension from the pain I was in the day before. He massaged it and sent me back to the cave and made me promise I would NOT do anything today and told me to be back at his office at 4:30 this afternoon! OK...thanks doc!! I did what he said and I do feel a lot better!!! I must say that I had a great experience with my first visit to the chiropractor!!! I hope to be back in the sing of things tomorrow! I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Mini Vacation

Well Hello Everyone!! Long time no Blog!! What do they say...better late than never. Oh well, I'm blogging again and I hope to do better at it.

Since my last blog...(Halloween), well we have celebrated Thanksgiving, Christmas & A New Year. I really don't want to play catch up so I decided just to start my blog with our mini vacation that Lonnie and I took with Kendra and Kaleb this last weekend. 

Kaleb call a couple of weeks ago and invited Lonnie and I to go to Dallas with him. He was in need for a weekend trip and he didn't really want to go by himself. Of course I'm always up for a road trip. I even convinced him to go farther south to Austin. It didn't take much convincing since Kaleb had gone to school just south of Austin from the time he was in the 6th grade till November of his Junior year. He was all excited to be able to visit with some old friends. So it was a done deal. We would leave Thursday night after Lonnie and I got done taking picture's at CLEET  in Ada.

Monday Kendra came and spent the night with us since she was working in Prague and told me that she was going to be able to go! I WAS SUPER EXCITED!! A mini vacation with 2 of my kids!! YES!!

So Thursday night at about 7:30 p.m. we were southbound to Texas!

Kaleb & Kendra

 Since we got such a late start we decided to only drive to Denton and we got rooms there. Friday morning we all got around and grabbed breakfast in the car and headed to Sam Moon in Dallas. I just love this place...if you are a girl and you have been there you know exactly what I mean. Kendra and Kaleb made it in the store before I did but as soon as I walked in I couldn't help but laugh because Kendra was like a kid in a candy shop. She was smiling from ear to ear and she already had her hands full of goodies.

One of Kaleb's requests while in Dallas was to go to Stroker's also known as Ma's Roadhouse. It's the bar site of a mini reality show.

Kaleb & Kendra at Stroker's Dallas

Lonnie & Me 

Kaleb and Ma

We went in and bellied up to the bar and ordered a few drinks.

Kaleb & Kendra

What is a bar experience without a game of pool. So we put the quarter's up and Lonnie and Kaleb decided what they were gonna bet and it was game on!!

Kaleb

Lonnie

And the winner is...KALEB!!

After a few game's of pool we decided to go over to the gift shop so the kids could get a t-shirt and koozie's and look who we found hanging out! Yep it was Bart Simpson! How could we resist?

Kendra & Bart

Lonnie, Bart & Me

Kaleb

After stopping by Stroker's we stopped for fuel before heading farther south and this is what Kaleb came out of the quick stop with for me.

What a Mama's boy. I love this kid!

We made it into Austin early evening. Downtown 6th street was our goal for the evening. Kaleb had been talking with a couple of his buddies that he had gone to school with while we lived there. They agreed to meet us at a restaurant on 6th street for dinner. The only picture's I got of all of them together was on Kaleb's phone so I don't have any to share with you. After dinner we all walked around for a while but Kendra was nursing an ear infection and Lonnie and I ...well Lonnie & I are just plain OLD so we left Kaleb with his friends and we went back to the room to call it a night.

The next day we headed to eat at one of our favorite places when we lived there. Mammacita's Mexican Restaurant. Then it was on to another on of our favorite places while we lived there...The San Marcos Outlet Mall!! We spent several hours there shopping. We bought so much stuff that I wasn't sure how we were gonna get it all in the car, but since I am the organizing queen, we managed just fine.

That evening Wade Bowen was playing at Gruene Hall in Gruene Texas. 

If you have never been to Gruene Texas it is a must! It is so beautiful and peaceful. And how lucky could we get that Wade was playing at the Hall that night! SCORE!! 

The kids had never been there before so we went into the town as soon as we got there and checked it out. Kendra and Kaleb have been interested in wine lately, so we stopped at a winery for some wine tasting. Then it was time to go get our rooms and get all prettied up for the concert. The evening was a total blast. The concert was great, the company was awesome and who can complain about Gruene Hall. Again all the picture's from that night are on Kaleb's phone. I totally failed with the camera job this weekend. Oh well lesson learned.

The next day it was back to Gruene for some lunch and shopping before heading home. And what a way to start a day...with Mimosa's.

Kendra, Kaleb, Me & Lonnie at the Gristmill

Kaleb, Kendra & Me

Lonnie & Me in front of Gruene Hall

Kendra's shopping fun!

Kaleb & Lonnie's shopping fun!

Our final must have stop was to H-E-B Grocery for some Julio's chips and Salsa!!

Our family mini vacation was a SUCCESS! I had such a blast with Lonnie and my kiddo's...I just wish we could have stayed a few more days. I hope everyone had a blessed weekend like I did.

Halloween 2011

Fall has always been my favorite time of the year. The weather is perfect and the colors of fall are the best! Halloween is no exception. I use to love to dress up when I was little and when I became a mom I loved to dress my kids up and take them around town Trick-or-Treating! Heck, I would even dress up with them.

A Halloween tradition that I started when the kids were very little was that I would put on a pot of homemade chili and make cinnamon rolls! Every year they would always look forward to eating before heading out for a night full of Trick-or-Treating. Since I moved to Norman I guess my kiddo's thought the tradition would be broken. Not only could I not break our tradition, I could not go without handing out candy to the little kids. Since we had nothing on the schedule Lonnie and I decided to head to Medford to continue the tradition. Kendra started texting me the day before Halloween saying how much she was going to miss it. Even though my kids are 22, 21 & 19 I just could not disappoint.

Halloween morning I was off for a Wal-Mart run to get everything that I needed for the meal & of course a few bags of candy so that I could hand some out, even though I knew mom would have some. I got the chili in the crock pot and I put the cinnamon rolls on a cookie sheet to rise. At around 3:00 we headed to Medford! 

When I got to mom's I plugged in the chili and popped the rolls in the oven.  

Kendra was a Happy Camper!

It wasn't long after we arrived that the Trick-or-Treater's started arriving.

My mom with my Lil cousin's Brayden & Cayden.

Tommy the cat was not sure about all this Halloween Business!

After the Trick & Treating died down Heidi brought the girls back over and Aunt B came over for some good family time.

Me and my Ky Ky!

We even did a little dancing!

Ky wanted to fly so everyone pitched in to help her out.

Kaleb decided to eat all the leftover candy. I guess you're never to old for Halloween.

I hope everyone had a Happy & Safe Halloween!