Spring Bucket List OKC Style

In honor of Spring, it is finally time to get out of the house and do things in the community!


I always love when Susannah over at Simple Moments Stick posts her seasonal bucket lists.  Hers are usually much more extensive than this, but considering we're already one month into Spring and our schedules really only allows us to do fun things on the weekends, a list of five is probably the only attainable goal.  

1.  Visit the OSU-OKC Farmer's Market.
Since we've lived in OKC, I still have not been to the Farmer's Market.  I've always heard good things, and I wouldn't mind getting my hands on some fresh eggs.  Plus it just sounds fun!

2.  Dig for rose rocks near Lake Thunderbird.

We've hunted rose rocks before, but the location we chose last time just had small ones that were not developed well.  I'd like to try another area where the larger rocks form.

3.  Feed the turtles at Martin Park.
I always enjoy Martin Park, a wildlife refuge tucked away in north OKC.  It is especially fun in the Spring and Summer because you can take your shoes off and walk through the rocky stream.  In the warmer months are also when all the turtles are out, and if you bring cat or dog food you can feed them.

4.  Visit H&8th (stands for Hudson & 8th street) and get food from food trucks.
This one is just a Spring/Summer thing to do.  Once a month they block off the roads near Hudson and 8th Street and open it up for pedestrians, a band, and all the city's food trucks.  The local shops in that area stay open late, and you can walk around with a beer and try all kinds of interesting truck cuisine.  You're pretty much a hermit if you live around here and don't go at least once.

5.  Play mini-golf with friends.
We've been meaning to play mini-golf with my old roomie and her hubby, and we really need to make it happen soon!  Plus, mini-golf is just fun!

What's on your Spring bucket list?

Birthday Party Extravoganza

If you follow me on Instagram, you've probably already seen some of our pictures from New Orleans last weekend.  Keep your eye out for posts on our trip there soon.

While Tyler and I have wanted to visit NOLA together for a while, the drive is really just too far to take for just a couple days of vacation and then to come back.  But we also had another reason for making a trip to Louisiana, and when we found out about it we knew we could turn two trips into one.

For years, various parties have been hosted for various reasons in Shreveport (where my Uncle Bob and Aunt Chris are from).  A couple years ago we just went down for my Uncle Bob's 80th birthday, and this year it was Aunt Chris' 80th, my grandma's 70th, and various other birthdays in the family that were celebrated at one event.

My grandma with a picture of my mom and dad.

Aunt Chris on her 80th

My cousin made all 5 cakes for each birthday!  She's pretty talented, and all the cakes were really unique.

My grandma's cake.

Aunt Chris' cake.

 This side of my family is really big, so Tyler always gets to meet someone new to talk to.  This time he talked to some of my cousins that he hasn't met yet, and revisited with some other family.

My parents at the party.  The party was held in the conference room of a casino/hotel in Bossier City, and lunch was catered in the conference room across the hall.  

Anyone notice how similar my dad's and Tyler's shirts are?  We thought it was funny that they were unintentionally twinkies.

 Aunt Chris' "80" balloons, and Grandma's bouquet of flowers for the table.  Each birthday person got their own set of flowers to take home that were unique from the other bouquets.

This is my Uncle Bob, Aunt Chris' husband and my grandpa's uncle by blood and brother by adoption.  Since my grandpa was adopted by his grandparents, it sometimes makes family relations confusing.  That and, there's just so many of us that we'd probably get confused anyway.

My dad with my little cousin.  Many years ago at Christmas, he gave her the nickname "Evelyn."  She was pretty young, and it hurt her feelings a little bit because Evelyn was not her name.  To make up for it, her mom told her to start calling my dad "George."  About seven years later, the Evelyn/George feud still lives on.

This shindig began about 1:00 in the afternoon, and ended at 7:00.  Since Shreveport is sort of the mini-vegas of the south, all the adults went and wandered all three floors of the casino that is connected to the hotel.  Tyler and I don't really enjoy gambling, because it is a gamble, but I put in $2 to one game so that I could get a free cocktail from the waitress and ended up with $24 back from the same game, so that was the extent of our gambling experience.

After everybody left, we stood out front to take some pictures by the grand fountain in the front of the casino.

While I was changing my camera settings, a guy started talking to Tyler and told him that he lost $1,000 that night gambling....which is why we don't really gamble much.  My personal belief is that if you are going to gamble, you should count the amount you decide to spend as "fun" money.  If you make more, good for you, but if you lose what you had then you stop there and you had your fun for the night.  I'm just glad my "fun" money was only like $5 and not more.

Tyler and I in front of the fountain.  

Birthday parties in our family feel more like family reunions, it is always fun to see family again.  One of my aunts commented on how it is sad that some of us who just live 2-3 hours away have to drive 6 hours every couple years to spend time together.  I guess busy schedules just get in the way too often.

What are birthday parties and reunions like in your family?

American Kestrel Catches Sparrow

We've had several snow storms coming through our region in recent days, and so many of us have enjoyed watching all the little birds - sparrows, cardinals, blue jays - out in the snow.  Some neighbors keep bird seed feeders outside their apartments, others of us just throw out the occasional bread crumbs.    This particular day I was taking some pictures of the birds outside and suddenly I saw this colorful bird I'd never seen before hopping around on top of the shrub.    Come to find out this is an American Kestrel, a type of small falcon.  He had been hunting the smaller birds feeding on the ground, and I captured his catch.  

  Needless to say, some of the photos below may be a bit graphic as it involves the dying sparrow that the Kestrel caught.

At first, I did not realize that the Kestrel was hunting the other birds since he disappeared into the shrub, but I realized when he came out he was carrying one of the small sparrows. 

The sparrow was still alive, but regardless of whether I tried to shoo the falcon off save the little guy, he was already injured enough that he wasn't going to make it.  I figured the Kestrel needs to eat too, but I did feel a little guilty for throwing crumbs out and that the sparrows had their guard down while they ate.

It was such a neat opportunity to see nature happen at my doorstep.  It is such a beautiful bird, and I'll like him so long as he doesn't stay here and hunt all the little birds that always eat here.

He obviously saw me taking pictures of him, since he looked directly at me several times before he flew to a nearby tree with his dinner.

  While the birds look beautiful in the snow, I'm hoping winter and all these snow storms will die off during March.    How is winter looking where you live?  

Recap Christmas Day

Good morning, dear readers!  Happy New Year to you!  

Since I'm doing some early spring cleaning and some other chores that need to be done, and I work nights (aka I don't have a life), I don't really see much good blog content in the near future.  

Since that seems to be the case, I thought I'd recap our Christmas day.  This year was our year to spend Christmas on my side of the family.  We have kind of started a flip flop tradition where one year we'll spend Thanksgiving on one side, Christmas on the other, and then the next year we flip flop which families get which holiday.  That way we get to see both every year.

My grandma decorates a beautiful tree.

This year my family did Christmas a little bit different.  Usually we all show up Christmas day around 10:00 am, and eat Christmas lunch around 11:30.  After lunch we typically spend the day together, open presents or play dirty santa (differs every year), and then most everyone leaves around 4:00 pm.  

All the above stayed the same this year, except some of us stayed the night on Christmas night.  

When I was a kid, the house used to be so packed that all of us kids would have to sleep on the floor, and the couches were taken.  Nowadays most of my cousins either have Christmas with their own families, or live out of state and can't come, so it just seems a little too small and lonely each year.  But we are thankful to be together, and had a great time spending the night and part of the next day with my grandparents.

Many people who have visited my grandma's house have told her it is "like a museum."  She collects all kinds of antiques and rustic decorations, so her house is full of interesting items.  Her attic is basically the same square footage as the rest of the house, because she all-out decorates for pretty much all the major holidays or seasons.  At Christmas time, we play a game called "count the Christmas trees" because she has so many tiny, small, medium, and large Christmas tree decorations throughout the house.

The "dessert bar" is in the laundry room that is off the side of the kitchen.  The best spot in the house, if you ask me.

 My grandparent's lost their cat of about 15 years earlier this year, and have since 'acquired' two little neighborhood cats that come visit them.  I think they do a little more than 'visit' these days since they come inside, get fed there, and sleep inside at night.  Maybe they're just in denial that they now have two new cats.

 This is how Tom says that he wants inside.

And this is Syll.  Her name was Sylvester, until they realized that 'he' was actually a 'she' and so she became 'Syll.'  I think she feels like a queen in my grandma's fancy animal print themed spare bedroom.

My mom and my great grandpa before lunch!

My dad is always the life of the party, telling his crazy work stories (whether you asked to hear them or not).  We're not sure if my cousin asked for it or just ended up in the conversation.

After lunch, we all opened gifts.  Tyler and I didn't get a chance to have our traditional Christmas with just us this year, so I brought his stocking to family Christmas.  He is always fun to watch opening gifts (yep, he was the fun kid that ripped all the packages open - the opposite of me).

Family Christmas is also the time to make sure everyone is practicing good health, so the blood pressure monitor made its way out and got passed around.  (You think I'm kidding?  There's the picture to prove it!)

 A Christmassy mantle.  How many Christmas trees do you count in just this one frame?  Now imagine an entire house.  No one gets the same number of Christmas trees in the count the trees game.

This shot here is just the top of the refrigerator.  I count 5 mini trees.

My grandma and her dad, my great grandpa.

Our family picture with Tyler - before I figured out how to use self timer, so we took turns.

And now Tyler taking our family picture for us with me in the picture.

After my Great Grandpa left, I had some time to figure out how to use self timer, and so we took another picture where Tyler and I were both there.

Another aspect that makes my grandma's home "museum-like" are these photos, which she had restored several years ago.  They are of my Great Great Great Great Grandparents (I think, don't hold me accountable to the number of 'Greats').  I just think they are amazing.

Do you see the family resemblance???  I'm not sure if I really can tell any traits for sure or not, but it is still neat to see what my grandparents so many generations ago looked like.

How did you spend your Christmas Day?  

Belated 2014 Christmas Home Tour

December is almost over, but while we're still here, I'd like to share our Christmas apartment once again.  Life got away from me this December, and so as it should the blog was one of the first things that went to the backburner.

This December has been hard.  Between sheer busyness and normal chaos that comes with the season, we were hit with an unexpected loss of a dear family member.  While we are still processing the loss, we are so thankful for the time we were able to spend with our families this year.  

When we began to decorate our tree in late November, I decided to use the grapevine from a grapevine wreath as a garland around the tree.  Although our tree is a $25 as-fake-as-can-be Walmart tree, the grapevine really helps the tree come to life.  All of our decorations are either those that were given to me by my grandma on my first Christmas in a college apartment, or ornaments that I've made, or that others have made for me or given me.  

My mother-in-law taught me to make the swirly looking ornament on the left out of fabric, we made those this year together.

This ornament, however, she made us last year for our first Christmas.

This little bird was an ornament I made while living in China to decorate my little tree.

My pearl ornament I made in 2012.

This pine pearl ornament from 2013.

Tyler's aunt sent us this adorable little bird house ornament this Christmas.

And his sister made us this beautiful ornament.

She also made this one, but my picture doesn't do it justice.

Once again, we hung garland across the window and attached a large bow to the middle with lights.

But my absolute favorite detail for 2014 are these adorable pinecones hanging in the kitchen pass through window to the livingroom.  My love for pinecones is one thing, but these mini-chandeliers are simply the best simplistic but chic decoration that I'm into this year.

Don't you feel their charm?  I love pinecone charm.

Once again, we hung our kissing ball in the livingroom.  

I added some pine branches and my snowman scene with a tree made out of a...guess what...PINECONE!  (I actually refer to myself as the crazy pinecone resident at my complex.  I'm sure that's what other residents have secretly named me as well.  I have a real obsession.)

I added some pine branches that I found on the ground after a storm to a vase with cranberries floating to make the perfect winter centerpiece for our table.  It is surprising how long pine branches will look good indoors.

I like having a little Christmas at the coffee bar.  This year I went shopping with my mom and grandma, and after going our separate ways we all ended up telling each other about the same tree.  Needless to say, we checked out one by one, at the same register, each purchasing the same tree.  The clerk was slightly confused.  But that rustic tree was perfect for the coffee bar.