Our trip to Tulsa....

When I got to G-ma and G-pa's house on Saturday night....boy were the kids excited to see me and their sister!!!! They were so hyper!!


On Sunday morning, we went to church. Of course, about 5 minutes before leaving, I realized I could not find M's white sandals. I knew I had put them in the bag, but they were not there. Argh! So, M and I made a detour at 8:30am to Wal-Mart to buy shoes. I was not going to bring her in hot-pink, dirty Croc knock-offs with her pretty dress!! Was NOT going to happen!!! So, I did arrive at Sunday School late. Oh well, would you really expect that I would be on time?!?!

But, wow! What a great day! During Sunday School, we saw a Beth Moore movie. Wow...if you've never heard her....you should read one of her books...Well, within 4 minutes I was in tears. Just as I walked in late, she was talking about being held hostage by things in our past....Wow! Can you say this lesson was meant for ME!

Then, the preacher's message was also very good, except I got paged by the nursery in the middle of it, because M was crying her eyeballs out! Poor sweet angel! She was brave at first, but that faded away into panic of "where's my mommy?" But, she did pretty good.

I saw my old youth sponsors, Steve and Sonja B. I love them!!! Sonja updated me on their girls, who are 21 and 25 now. (that is just wrong! I changed both of those girls' diapers!!!!!) Just seeing them brings back such good memories...memories that are very close to my heart!! I seriously love these people...they are fantastic!!! I also saw so many people that are important to me and have known me since I was a little girl. Such love there. And I was super excited to see a friend of mine, Jennifer, who went to college w/ me. I got to see her adorable daughter, Camden, who is close in age to Marinne. It was so good to hug her and I was sad to hear she's going thru a divorce....Jen....call me if you need someone to listen.....((hugs))

Anyway, several people mentioned after seeing my kids how much they looked like me (and Ike, too) but I was surprised how many time I heard that Marinne looks like my mom. That warmed my heart.

Speaking of Marinne.....



Grampa wanted this picture.....
...it's not great, as the camera battery was dying and it only let me take this one....but he loved her hair in the double ponytail, so he asked me to take this picture.

On Monday, I took L and J to see their friends A and R. They all went to school together. We have gotten together every summer since we moved. We spent the day in the pool and even though it rained/sprinkled about 5 times while we were there...they still had a blast! A and R have a little sister who is 4 months younger than M and she goes off the diving board. So, you guessed it, M was going off the diving board after seeing A do it! And these tiny girls did this like 25 times each. As A warmed up to me, she wanted me to catch her off the board and she started calling me "other mommy." Isn't this cute?!?! I can't believe how brave these little girls are!!!


Here they are....minus R and M. R was getting kinda grumpy and M had already gotten out of the pool and was having a snack. There was no way she was going to give up fruit snacks for our picture!!

I snapped this one poolside, while she ate fruit snacks. I changed it to B/W because her suit is pale pink and the floaties are bright orange!

Doesn't she look so sweet?!


On Tuesday night, I was so happy to be able to see our oldest couple friends...the Warwicks.....you see, we go WAY, WAY BACK!!! And I seriously love this FAMILY!!!! All 4 of them!!!!

So, the dad....Matt and I met and dated for a few weeks over the Summer of 1990 at Oklahoma State University. He's a great guy. But he's Catholic and I wasn't, so it just wasn't meant to be. (plus I'm a little too high maintenence for him!!!) But, we remained friends as the years went by....tied together by a love of Melrose Place. Over the years, he met my hubby and they became friends. And I was quite busy trying to set him up on dates w/ my friends. But, he could not seem to find the right girl and the wrong girls always seemed to find him....

Then, one day, Erica was brought into my life, by circumstances that were unfortunate for both she and I. But, nevertheless, we formed a bond and became good friends. And as I got to know her...I realized, she had a LOT in common with my good buddy Matt. So, I got them together over a movie and they hit it off.

Fast forward over a decade and they are married with 2 kids and still our best friends.......and I miss them sooooo much....
and I love them even more!!!

So, everytime we get to visit.....we try to snap a pic of the kids so we can see how much they've changed and grown.

Here's the June 2007 version:

Logan 11, Jensen 8 1/2, Danny 8 1/2 (5 weeks apart,) Marinne 2 1/2, Josh 5 and Griffin 4 1/2.


Except for the sudden departure....the visit was fantastic. We spent a bunch of time just hanging out, which is what I love the best. Oh, and I started reading a Beth Moore book that my step mom has graciously loaned to me, so I could finish reading it.