What a decade!

I've been reading all these magazine articles about the best of the decade and it got me thinking about how my life has changed in this first decade of the new century. So, I put my new digital scrapbooking skills to use and created a layout about it! Hopefully, you'll be able to read the Then and Now journaling. Of course, I've thought of several to add since I finished this page like: Then, I played CD's and cassettes on my boom box. Now, I download songs to my iPod from my computer. Then, I would wonder about something and then let it go. Now, I wonder about something and I google it. (A word that didn't even exist 10 years ago!)

Leave me any of your ideas in the comments and maybe I'll make a part 2 of this page!

Hope you all have a very Happy New Year! I look forward to what's in store for 2010!!!!

Our First White Christmas!

Yet another first in our life here in Oklahoma: A Christmas Eve Blizzard! That's right, not just a little dusting of snow for a White Christmas, we got a actual full blown Blizzard! A first even for Tulsa and not person has said to me, "It's not normally like this here!"


The snow was very powdery and pretty tough to make snowballs with, but that didn't keep Chet from trying! (Notice the pond didn't even freeze over because it was sooo windy! 25-30mph!)



This where our sidewalk use to be. Now it is a snowdrift. In other parts of the yard, the grass was still peeking out where the snow had been blown away. So, in some places we had 1 inch of snow and in others it was closer to three feet!

You would think an older dog with arthritic hips would not really like the snow, but there's Bo dog running around the yard (and outside of it) just having a great time. Here he is on the snow dunes that cover our driveway.

And there's the old homestead on a magical Christmas Day morning! It was so special to be surrounded by all this white, just like all the old movies and Christmas cards. I don't think it is a holiday we will soon forget!

Look what I did!

While it's true I wasn't terribly productive today, I am trying to learn more about Photoshop and digital scrapbooking at JessicaSprague.com. So, I did complete these two layouts today (with lots of video instruction)! My last assignment was to share it on the web or email since I learned how to saved to the web after all! Hope you enjoy!

The Boys' Telepathic Powers

Scene: Bo, the best dog in the world, is staring up at Chet eating his breakfast and wagging his tail furiously in hopes that a morsel will come his way.

Chet: "I am telepathically petting Bo. See? He likes it! He told me telepathically."

Ethan: "I'm petting Bo telepathically, too!"

Chet: "Bo told me telepathically he doesn't like it."

Ethan: "I'm telling you telepathically you suck."

Aw, Brothers....

A Conversation with Chet IV

Chet: "Who is that?"

Me: "I don't know."

Chet: "What are they doing?"

Me: "I don't know."

Chet: "Why are they doing that?"

Me: "I don't know!"

Chet: "How did they get there?"

Me: "I DON'T KNOW."

This conversation took place while watching the Lost season finale. Not easy to catch the 10 year old up on 4 seasons of Lost when, apparently, I'm the one that's lost!

Learning with Technology

You know, when I was growing up and in school we weren't allowed to use calculators because we were suppose to know it by heart before we could use a machine to help us. Now, Ethan brings home homework in 1st grade entitled "Learning with Technology" where he has to use the calculator! My, how things change...


And, yes, I realize I sound like I'm 105 years old!

Random Thoughts Stirring Around in my Head

Gardening

I know this will come as a shock to most of you, but I really do not enjoy gardening. Well, to be more specific, I hate weeding. I weeded our front garden today and honestly it is the most thankless job. I mean it looks nice when it's done, but then it just has to been done again in a week. I do wish I would've gotten Grandma Dorothy's green thumb gene, because I think if I had a natural inclination to care for my gardens, I don't think the weeding would be so bad. Ethan did come out and help me today. By help, I mean he collected and named the worms and enjoyed scouted out the frogs that live in our front garden.

I'm guessing they weren't too happy about me weeding either. Did I mention my whole body hurts now? Even my fingernails. On bright side, I think that counts as my workout for the day!

Facebook

Well, I took the leap a few weeks ago and joined Facebook. Of course, my two best friends who have been bugging me to get on it for months are no longer doing anything on there. (Yes, I mean you, Steph & Trace.) I feel like I just finally broke down and bought a pair of trendy flared legged jeans and now everyone is wearing trendy skinny jeans. Of course, now I'm the one filling them in on stuff going on at school so I guess it's not a total loss.

Things I like about Facebook:

1. Chatting with my sister! (Hello, my favorite sister!)

2. Playing Bejeweled Blitz. (My name is Kelli and I'm a Bejeweled Blitz addict...)

3. People I went to elementary school or college with finding me and catching up.

4. Catching up with my old Cast Members from Disneyland. (That really was a GREAT job!)

5. Finding out the lastest goings on at school. (Oh yea, so-and-so has swine flu and will be out for a week.)

6. Being able to discuss the latest reality show I'm obsessed with, with people I never thought in a million years would also be obsessed. (Can I hear it one more time for my girl Jordan winning Big Brother?!)

Things I don't like about Facebook:

1. People I didn't know that well or found creepy in elementary/high school/college wanting to be friends with me.

2. I get the feeling that every word I say is going to come back to haunt me.

3. Playing Bejeweled Blitz. (My name is Kelli and I'm a Bejeweled Blitz addict...)

4. It is a total Time Vampire, as my eloquent friend Stephanie would say. It just sucks the time away. (Maybe that's why she's not on there anymore.)

Mario Kart

If Mario Kart was a driver simulation requirement to get a license I would never ever be able to get one. (That's me in 12th place.)

Football

These cute kids played some good football and looked good doing it with purple hair for Spirit Day at Football yesterday!

I even got the purple hair treatment!

(If you look close you can see there at the top...)

Sunday Night TV

I am so glad my Sunday Night TV is back with Amazing Race, Desparate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters. I love Amazing Race! It is the one reality show I would love, love, love to be on! How fun to see all those places around the world! That's on my bucket list!

My Little Reader

Ethan has become such a confident reader that he decided instead of checking another Biscuit book ("Come here, Biscuit." "Silly puppy.") from the library, he brought home "Kokopelli's Flute", a 5th grade book because he said he was ready for chapter books! He had "read" 50 pages on the bus on the way home from school. ;) We decided he could read me more Biscuit books and I would read the chapter book to him.

Self-Portrait

In downloading pictures from Chet's camera, I found a few gems including this self-portrait! I'm pretty sure it's how he would look after reading all the above random nonsense!

Hope you enjoy your own random nonsense today!

How quickly things change...

At 1pm this afternoon I was doing this:

This being taking pictures of Chet and his class cooking marshmallows in their solar ovens and eating the fruits of their labor in the form of s'mores! Man, being a kid is the best! Please note, the SUN is reflecting off of the solar oven and it was quite warm outside as the kids who set their chocolate bars out too long found out when the bars turned to liquid.

Then I went inside to help set up the school Book Fair. When I got home at 4pm, it looked like this outside:

Please note the absence of the SUN that was just out less than 3 hours ago. When I left school with the kids at 3:45pm, it was as dark as night. It POURED the whole way home. I HATE driving in the rain, but thankfully, none of the roads were washed out yet and we made it home safely. The sky was putting on quite a show tonight with all the lightning! Very cool, once you're home and no longer driving!

I guess it's true what they say: "If you don't like the weather, just wait 10 minutes."

Out of the mouth of babes...

Ethan, sitting next to me at Chet's football game: "I spy something beautiful..."

Me: "The flowers?"

Ethan: "No."

Me: "The clouds?"

Ethan: "No. Do you give up?"

Me: "Yep."

Ethan: "It's you, Mommy! You're something beautiful!"

Chet to me, on the way to school this morning: "I get 'The Talkingness' from you, Mom!" (Said like I gave him some disease!)

Football season opens!

That's right, our Upward flag football league played their opening games yesterday! The boys played great! Clearly using the skills that are endowed to all Panique men! Ethan was quarterback on two plays that resulted in touchdowns. He also made a great run up the line, but was called back of going out of bounds. (He still insists that it was a touchdown. Doesn't matter to me, it just resulted in some great photos!)

Chet played center and rusher mostly in his game, but did catch the ball for an extra point after his team scored. I thought they both played very well and were much improved over last year. It was so much fun to watch them out there having a great time!

Can't wait to see what the rest of the season holds!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

AKA The First Day of School! (If you haven't seen that Staples commercial set to that Christmas song, look for it! It is one of my all time favorite commercials!)

Anyway, here we are again the First Day of School! We've had such a fantastic summer, it's a little hard for me to go back to the real world. (Of course, the boys have been on each other's nerve this last week, and it's made this day a LOT easier for me!) Our tradition continues and Grandma has been here for every First Day of School since we moved here three years ago.

It's a little weird to realize this is Chet and Ethan's last year at the same school. Chet will be in middle school next year. Whoa! Time goes by fast! So, I took advantage of Mom Rights and embarrassed both of my boys and took pictures of them with their teachers! While I assured Chet that I wouldn't follow him around to all his classrooms in middle school, his teacher, Ms. Meador, dared me too! I might have to use this as a threat to get him to do what I want! Enjoy the pics!

Meet Your Teacher Day

That's right, today was Meet Your Teacher Day and as such, I should have some sweet picture of at least one of my children with their new teacher. It should be accompanied by some sweet story of how my kids can't wait to start a new school year, how much they love school, but honestly, when you run across a photo like this how can it NOT be the picture of the day.

See for yourself:

Hmmmmm....perhaps we need to find a new grocery store.

Did you ever have one of those days?

Yesterday, I set my alarm and got up at 7:30am. I have not been up at that probably all summer, but I thought I would get an early start on the things I had to do so I could finish early. Wow, was I wrong! It started when I was trying to place an order online. Generally, there are no time constraints when ordering online, but what was ordering was coming from Texas and so it my Godmother, so the plan was to save on tax and shipping and have her bring it. Even though the website said it would be available that day, it would not let me order. So, at 3pm I was finally able to order. When you start something simple at 7:30am, 3pm does NOT seem like an early finish to me.

Then, because I am the PTA membership, I was creating invitations to invite the teachers to a membership breakfast just for them next Tuesday. Again the plan is to start early and get them in their boxes by lunch so they have some notice before the event. Well, those didn't get done until 2:30pm and put in their boxes at 3:30pm (and only because my mom helped me) because....

The night before the A/C upstairs stopped working just before bed! Now again, because I was up early I was able to call the A/C people first thing when they opened. Our guy got here about 10am and wasn't done until 2pm, after we made plans to completely replace the upstairs system. Oh joy.

So, nothing appears to be going my way and then....

it turns in to one of these days....

I got to take my mom to see "Wicked" for her birthday! She and my dad introduced my sister and me to musicals early on. I loved going to the theater as kid! I always felt so grown up and something about live theater makes you feel like you are a part of the performance. I love it and tonight was no different!

I took Mom to Spaghetti Warehouse for dinner (once we found it. Argh, construction....). It was very yummy (15 layer lasagna!) and their service was very fast! Always nice when trying to get to an event!

Then we found our way to the theater (no construction there - yay!). We were in the Mezzanine and had a terrific view of the whole stage. Neither one of us had seen this musical, but with all we've heard about it, we were very excited!

It was Oziffic! The story explains how the Wicked Witch of West (Elphaba) and Glinda the Good Witch got to be who we see in the Wizard of Oz. They did such a great job of filling in the blanks and showing all these events that you have engrained in your head from a completely different perspective. The sets were beautiful and the costumes to die for! The ensemble cast played student, citizens of Oz and flying monkeys. That was one hard working cast with innumerable costume changes! So, we enjoyed every minute of it and I can't wait to go see another musical!

So, while my day didn't start off the best, it certainly changed by nighttime! Sometimes you just need a little different perspective!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Water Park Wednesday!

Well, of all the places I've been this summer it seemed I might miss out on one of my Oklahoma favorites, but thankfully, we made it to the Muskogee River Country water park today!! We love this place. It's just big enough to have lots of cool stuff, but not so big that kids can't go have some fun on their own. Chet & Kacy were the first ones on the big water slides! (We were among the first ones in the park today. Mom and I were impressed with ourselves. We never get anywhere at opening!) They haven't seen each other in weeks and were all over the park today. Here they are on the lazy river:

I was so proud of Ethan today (and this summer in general). He's gotten so brave with trying all sorts of different things. He was up and down the slides on his own and with friends. He managed his way over this floating ropes course:

He fell off almost every time, but he get back up and try again! His determination was so sweet to watch!

I was happy to spend some time with my best friends before this summer comes to a close:

It's been a fantastic summer! It's going to be hard to beat this one!

P.S. I played with my blog layout and design today! Do you like it?

Friends from home!

How fun for us today to have our friends, Charlie and Dollie, here from California!! Charlie grew up out here and with 8 siblings still has plenty of family in the area. It was so cool to see some California people here in Oklahoma! A little piece of home! It's always fun with Dollie & Charlie. I can prove it, because here's a picture of Charlie the last time we saw him:

His kids threw him a surprise 60th birthday party while we were in California this summer! (The surprise was that it was 6 months after his actual birthday!) These people know how to party!

These two are like second grandparents to my kids and second parents to me. They've been a part of the major milestones in my life and they are always pulling for me and praying for me. I am so grateful to God for putting them in my life and my parents' lives.

So thanks for making time to come see us, Dollie & Charlie! It was great to show you around our place finally and share more Oklahoma stories!!!

Grandma's here!

See, even Bo's happy!!!

When we moved out here 3 years ago, my mom drove with us and we arrived two days before school started. She helped me get the kids registered, do back-to-school clothes shopping and meet the teachers. I probably wouldn't have survived without her help! Ever since, Mom's made it a point to be out here for the First Day of School every year. It works out well, because she comes out a week or two before school starts and gets to spend some summer fun time with the boys while they still have free time. So, we have our own little tradition and I'm so thankful for it! :)

Cody's Birthday Party

We spent the day at Grand Lake for Cody's birthday! The boys had a great time celebrating with friends and meeting new ones! I love this picture of E & Cody sitting on the dock fishing. What a perfect picture of childhood!

Then, the birthday boy caught a fish thhhhhiiiiiiisssss big!:

Go Cody!

Even Bo got to go to the lake today.

He'll probably sleep for a week now with all the running around he did up there! Don't feel too sorry for him. As usual, he had everyone there under his spell and spent much of the day getting his ears and his belly rubbed. I wish I could explain it, but people just meet this dog and instantly fall in love. Of course, he is a big love, I just don't know how people know this immediately upon setting eyes on him. I'm just lucky to have the best dog on the planet.

Of course, no party is complete without a pinata!

Chet whacked it pretty good, but this is probably my favorite picture of the day:

I was so happy to capture the pure joy of Tracey helping Cody break open the pinata! And this was the perfect shot of what happens AFTER the pinata is open:

Nice way to spend a summer day, which is good, because they are winding down oh-so-quickly!