Random Stuff

A couple of months ago, the retired lady that lives across the street from us had a big, old tree cut down from her back yard. The tree "choppers" hauled the tree parts out to the front and left them on the sidewalk. Joe and Henry (our next door neighbor, and the neighborhood odd-job man) ran across the street with a dolly and picked up some of the more choice pieces. Then Henry took this piece to his house and Joe paid him to make this to go in our yard. He finished it the other day and it was on our front sidewalk yesterday morning. Joe has since moved it to the back yard where it covers up our gas meter!

A couple of weeks ago when we were at the lake, Kaitlyn was sitting on the back of the boat and a dragonfly landed on her toe and wouldn't get off. So I took a picture.

And then this bad-ass dragonfly (looks like a cross between a scorpion and a dragonfly) landed on our boat yesterday when Joe and I went to the lake and I had to take a picture of it (blown up of course). It looked like a helicopter when it took off.

Finally cooling off...If you call 90's cool

This picture was taken last week, when we were in the throes of 100+ heat (usually about 105 each day). We had like two weeks in a row of 100+ heat. This is our thermometer which showed 100 in the shade. I'm sure my electric bill will reflect this too!

This week we're back in the low to mid-90's. Which, trust me, feels like fall around here. I got up this morning and walked for about 30 minutes. It felt wonderful and cool. We're supposed to go to the lake some this weekend. It may be too cold for me to get in the water. JUST KIDDING....

Wayback Wednesday - Skating Competition

Here's a video of Kaitlyn competing at the 2004 Southwest Regionals Championships in Wichita, Kansas. She was competing against skaters from 10 states. She got 3rd place in the qualifying round and moved up to the championship round but didn't do so well. This is her long program where she got 3rd place. This is a "copy" of the video. I taped it on my camera while it was playing on the t.v. The background noise is my aquarium. The music is from Westside Story.

Arbuckle Lake - 4th of July

Joe, Kaitlyn, Michael (Kaitlyn's boyfriend) and I went to the lake yesterday. We had a great time and missed the rain, or so we thought. Just as we were putting the boat into the boat stall, it started POURING HARD. We had to take the bimini top off and Joe had to lower the wakeboard tower before we could back the boat in. This was a new experience for us (taking down the top and tower). Needless to say we all got drenched (Joe and I had already changed into our street clothes) and had to ride home soaking wet. Here's some video of Joe wakeboarding. Kaitlyn is driving the boat and I'm filming. I loaded Kaitlyn wakeboarding on my Facebook page. Kaitlyn has video of Michael wakeboarding but she took it with her camera so I'll probably never see it. We may go back later today when the rain moves on into Texas.

4th of July - Our Neighborhood Parade

We had the annual Westland Addition Neighborhood 4th of July parade this morning. I sat out front and videotaped it.

One year the girls decorated up their Razor scooters and rode in the parade.
And one year they decorated their vintage Stingray bikes to ride in the parade.

Upgrading the Boat

Joe is in the process of putting a wakeboard tower and bimini top on our boat. It is sitting in the neighbor's driveway while he works on it. This picture was taken this morning when he was putting the side rods on the boat.I took this one just a little while ago (about 8:30 PM) and he has the tower up and the bimini top on. Now he's getting ready to add speakers (so we can rock out) and the wakeboard racks. I guess he's going to be working with flood lights on him so he can try and get it ready for tomorrow.

It will be lots of fun, when we get it out on the lake.

Wayback Wednesday - My Little Sooners

These pictures were taken at a daycare when Kristen was about 6 and Kaitlyn was about 3.

This is one of the few pictures I have of them in matching dresses! I think Kristen was about 8-9 and Kaitlyn was 5-6.