Tag Archives: Heather

Weekend Roundup

Busy, busy, busy that was us this weekend. Friday was my 9/80 day. I work 80 hours over nine days and get every other Friday off. It makes for long hours when I’m working but I love having the extra days off. Friday, Heather and I dropped my car off to get tires and then we went to breakfast and then on to the movies. We decided to see The Revenant.

Heather went to see it as a favor to me and I don’t think she liked it as much as I did. The Revenant is a powerful movie and very raw and incredibly brutal at times. I was worn out by the time it was done and I can see why it was nominated for a bunch of Oscars. I can’t really say much about it because almost anything would be a spoiler. I’ve some research I need to do and then maybe a dedicated blog post.

Friday night Logan’s Improv group put on a new show. Logan loves Improv and I love watching him light up when he is onstage. It is great watching his fellow performers also, some of whom have been in the group for years and I love watching the kids grow up. Logan and several others are seniors this year so they will be aging out of the group. We’ll have to see how Logan can continue doing Improv.

The nature of Improv is that you have to have a quick wit and you have to move on. Some skits work and others don’t and you don’t look back, you just go on.

Saturday morning I went for a trail run on Turkey Mountain. It is a great place to get my head on straight.

I saw this note card stuck in a tree. It’s a nice gesture and all that but the first rain this will turn into mush or the wind will blow onto the ground. I’m such a cynic.

Saturday night Logan got all spiffed up for his school’s Winter Ball. Heather and I were the chauffeurs for the night. We drove him to a country club where the Senior Dinner was and then later picked him up and took him to the dance venue and then picked him up. We were glad to do it. It was great seeing the young men and women being all dressed up, excited, and glowing for the event.

Heather and I went first class. I took her to one of the finest convenience stores in the country and offered to get her anything she wanted. I was even prepared to get here the X Large Pizza. Nothing but the best for my wife. She opted for a bottle of water.

Christmas 2015 – In the Books

Christmas happened this year. Hear you go a rare shot of me in my snuggie.

The kid with his Nana. The kid is getting taller and taller. Is there something we can spray him with to slow him down a little bit.

Heather and Nana, quite a team.

I got a candid shot of Heather. She said she hated it but then she made it her profile pic on facebook. Should I hit her up about royalties?

I captured Nana also.

Before the Christmas meal. We decided to have it more informally this year in the kitchen. Lots less work that way.

My sister Ellen posted this on facebook today. She’s the cute one in the middle. I’m the good looking guy on the right and brother Bob is on the left. I’m guessing mid 1960’s in Price, Utah. We always had a great Christmas. Often we would load up afterward and head up to southern Idaho to see our relatives there. That was fun, or we would head down to Phoenix and see people down there. That was fun also. Bob and Ellen, with her husband Irvin, spent Christmas in Idaho with my dad this year.

She also posted this picture of her three girls. I’m guessing in the 1980’s. Dana is on the left. She and her husband Adam are in Australia visiting his family with their little girl who was born this year. Adam is an Australian citizen you see and their little girl has dual citizenship which I think is totally cool. Jillian in the middle is also visiting my dad, her Grandfather for Christmas in Idaho. Her husband Brian is in the Army serving his country overseas this season. Mary on the right spent Christmas in Colorado Springs with her son this year.

This isn’t a Christmas picture but it is Ellen and her Husband Irvin with Logan back at the turn of the century.

This is also not a Christmas pic but it shows my dad in between Logan and brother Bob.

And this is brother Bob and me with our mother a long time ago in Coyote, New Mexico. She is never far from our thoughts.

Hey you know, when we celebrate Christmas we celebrate it with the critters also. This is abby our sweet but not very smart mutt.

And Rascal, he is sweet and smart. You can see that he has been reading the paper.

And our sweet but perpetually cold mutt Ginger. My niece Dana pictured above lives in the Phoenix area and I think Ginger would like us to move there also.

And Nana’s dog Fiona. She always enjoys visiting us, but is ready to go home when that times comes also.

That was our Christmas this year or at least part of it. I’m big into Christmas not running into a huge stop on Christmas Day so I’m going to go ahead and everybody a Merry Christmas.

Skywatch Friday – Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all of you who observe it, Happy Skywatching to everybody. This is from our trip to Hawaii last summer.

Linking with Skywatch Friday

How about some Bing Crosby and Mele Kalikimaka?

Now, Elvis and Martina Mcbride: Blue Christmas

Christmas Memories

Digging through the files. This is Logan when he was two. He has always been a Christmas kid.

One year we got me Logan some Thomas the Tank Engine track and cars. I He loved it until ~~Heather took it away from me~~ he outgrew it. Sniff.

At least two out of the three of us can smile.

Boompa and Nana with Logan. Boompa, Charles, was the word’s greatest FIL and a heck of a great guy. He and Logan loved each other and were best friends. He was taken away from us suddenly years ago and we still miss him every day. Boompa loved Christmas and he loved his grandson.

This is my mother, Granny, with Logan when he was about six months or so. Nobody loved her kids, grandkids, and great grandkids like Granny did. She is also gone now.

We are moving forward though making new memories. We are confident that we will meet up with Boompa, Granny, and others again and the memories will be that much sweeter.

For new classic singers can anybody beat Michael Buble?

For great Christian Gospel Hymns check out my friend Driller's Christmas Music Marathon, going on now.

It’s That Day Again

Somebody is having a birthday! Notice the Zumba cake that her mother got Heather. Also notice the Birthday Angel making another appearance. Time was Heather would groan when it was brought out, not any longer.

Heather is always on the move these days. Full of life and surprises.

Happy Birthday Sweetie!

The party continued a couple days later. I love her top, and her tiara.

And another birthday cake!!

And she blew all the candles out in one breath!!

Logan was looking forward to the cake

And so were our three mutts.

Through My Lens – A Visit to Carmichael’s Pumpkin Patch

Sunday afternoon the family traveled from Tulsa down to the country outside of Bixby to Carmichael’s Pumpkin Patch to pick out the family pumpkins for Fall.

We saw some greedy goats.

And some cute little goats. At what point do they turn into shameless beggars?

We saw a lonely, humiliated chicken sharing its space with a rabbit and a tiny little pumpkin.

And a pot bellied pig looking a little frazzled trying to take care of her youngins. (Youngin is a word in Oklahoma just in case you are wondering. Other words have disappeared. Nobody knows what a Democrat is here any more. Except for some old timers who don’t really want to talk about it too much.

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And we saw brahma cow. aaaa

And a few llamas.

And some youngins making a little selfie nest in the pumpkins. Aren’t they cute. I wasn’t the only one taking pics of them making a selfie. Look at the lady across the way.

Oh yeah, we did find a couple of pumpkins!!!

Linking for the first time with Through My Lens

Lots Going on Here Lately

There has been lots going on these days. I have not been a very good blogging friend I am sorry to say.

Heather, Logan, and Nana after the play.

Let me see, first up this week, Logan was in a play at school. He plays Baloo the bear in the play “Just so Mr. Kipling” a drama based on Kipling’s characters in The Jungle Book.

It is a a great role for Logan with his deep booming voice. He makes a great bear. The kids all did great. For a one act play it has pretty large cast and you can tell the kids and the director really worked hard on it. They competed in a regional competition a couple weeks ago and won first place. So next week the State Championship so we are all loading up and heading down to Mustang, Oklahoma where the competition is being held.

And then Wednesday night was Corporate Night at Tulsa’s Oktoberfest. We took some customers to the event to drink beer, do the chicken dance, and wear funny hats. I didn’t take too many pics. Not good when you are with customers. I did get a pic of our VP of Operations holding two full beer steins. I am not sharing the pic with you guys though. At least not yet. Maybe after I retire, or he retires, or something like that.

The beer was great. This is Lagunitas IPA. Yum, yum, is what I say.

And then Thursday night the choir’s at Logan’s school gave a concert. Everybody from the first graders on up. Again they did a great job. Again, all I got is fuzzy pics from my cell phone. Sorry.

Saturday, Logan and I are heading out to the Wizard World at Tulsa’s Comicon. Fun, fun,fun exploration of the weirder side of our popular culture.. This pic is from last year’s event.

So that is what we have been doing. Kind of bouncing between Culture, Debauchery, Divine Music, and then Popular Culture. I’m really messing the kid up.

What have you been up to?

Geocaching, Saying Goodbye to the Kid, and the Dallas Cowboys get a Win

Saturday I dropped the kid off at his school for rehearsals for a one act play that he has a part in. He is a little busy these days. We suspended horseback riding for a while because of the rehearsals and he is missing his improv comedy workshop on Saturday. It is nice for him to be busy. Speaking of busy I went to Walmart after I dropped Logan off and got some stuff for making geocaches. I have three that have gone missing (“Muggled” is the term we nerds use) so I have to replace them plus I wanted to place one at the Tulsa Arrow that I found a couple weeks ago. Camo duct tape is a geocachers best friend. The waterproof match containers make great waterproof “microcaches.” The orange box makes for a good geocache container. I’ll use lots and lots of camo duct tape covering up the orange. The hot wheels are for trade trinkets in the caches in case you bring kids along. And I love Altoids and the empty tins are good cache containers if you can keep them out of the weather because they are not waterproof.

So after Walmart I buzzed downtown and replaced a geocache “Boys Night Out Downtown” that Logan and I placed in 2010 and has been found about 249 times and muggled five times. It is in a spot that homeless people find to be a great overnight sleeping area. By the time I got the thing camo taped and placed I got a text from the kid to come pick him up and then we drove up to north Tulsa’s Reservoir Hill to place the new cache.

It took us a while to find a good spot. I want it to be far away from houses and nowhere close to the City of Tulsa water infrastructure that is also there. I found a good spot, maybe too good. I placed the cache and it promptly disappeared from view so I suggested on the cache page that you bring gloves. So anyway here is the cache page for Tulsa Arrow. I wrote it up on Saturday and it got approved on Sunday.

On Sunday we packed Logan up and took him to school to catch a bus for the Senior Trip. They bused the kids down to TAhlequah, Oklahoma and are going rafting Monday morning on the Illinois River. So Heather and I are childless for about 24 hours. We kind of miss the kid actually but he’ll be back by the time I get home from work. He is really having a good year at school this year. He is taking drama and choir and he loves those classes.

So Heather and I didn’t feel like going out to eat so we went to the local sprouts store to pick up some Salmon. I am a fan of exotic tasting chips and so I found the these pumpkin spiced chips. They are okay but overly sweet and they have no salt. If they had left the salt in, I’d be buying a case of them. They do have a satisfying crunch to them.

Yep, I’m posting this photo again.

And speaking of satisfying the Dallas Cowboys beat the Philadelphia Eagles in Philly with the help of my two friends above. The Eagles didn’t play very well and Dallas had 18 penalties. Might be the last win for the Cowboys in a while. Tony Romo broke his clavicle and it looks like Dez Bryant is going to be out for a couple months with his broken foot.

Oh well, that was what happened this weekend. What about you?

Anniversary Time!!!!!

It is time to celebrate. Heather and I have been married twenty six years!!! She is the life of the party in my book. She has stood by me this whole time.

And just keeps looking better the whole time.

She manages to keep me grounded from time to time.

She is a devoted and loving mother. Just ask the kid.

She is willing to go down to City Hall and stand up for what is right.

She is first in line for any adventure.

>She loves critters of all kinds from little yappy dogs.

To ranch donkeys.

She is an intrepid explorer.

Happy Anniversary Heather, I love you very much!

Scavenger Hunt Sunday – Posed Edition

Another edition of Ashley Sisk’s Scavenger Hunt Sunday where she provides prompts and we provide the pics.

1. Supplies

This is from a camp out last year on Turkey Mountain during an event called Base Camp. Which is the only night one can legally go camping on Turkey Mountain all year. I have a pretty nice setup from my Cub Scout Assistant Den Leader Days. I have a nice roomy tent, a cot and even a night stand. And of course a decent cooler. Out Cub Scouts now I generally have different things to drink that what I brought back then. This is my post from last year’s event. I don’t know if I’m going to make it this year. Son is a senior and we have all sorts of things going on with him.

2. Shadows

These shadows are from a bridge at Powell Gardens near Kansas City.

3. Something I want

Heather and Logan are all that I want and I already have them. I am notoriously difficult to buy presents for because I don’t really want for anything. And no, that is not our donkey. I want pictures of donkeys but don’t give me the real thing.

4. Open

The past several weeks all the schools have been opening their doors for school. One thing I love about facebook is all the parents posting first day of school pics of their kids.

5. Posed

Saturday, Logan and I hiked five miles on Turkey Mountain. We both got a little parched and tired because it was hot and humid but took time to take a few pics. I thought this tree made a nice prop for a photo.

Linking with Scavenger Hunt Sunday