Oklahoma

Every time somebody at work would ask me if I had any vacations coming up I cringed at the thought of trying to explain why we were going to Oklahoma...for vacation...in the middle of the summer. When people would say, "Oklahoma?!?!" (usually with a wrinkled brow). I wanted to grab a pot and pan and yell, "OHHHHHKLAHOMA OKLAHOMA OKLAHOMA!!!" As did Steve Martin in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (If you haven't seen this movie it is totally worth it for that scene and where he...uh...relieves himself at the dinner table.)

Anyway, the reason we went is because Rich's Mom and Grandmother grew up in the Tulsa area and after hearing their stories I wanted to go back and visit. It was great to see the area and hear the stories from Mammie. The only bummer is we spent A LOT of time driving around on dirt roads only to arrive at our destination and have Mammie glumly tell us that they must have torn it down.

Mammie showing us what used to be.

We did get to go swimming in the Grand Lake which is beautiful. I can't wait to go back to Tulsa and next time we will rent a boat and waterski the Grand Lake.

Another highlight was lounging in the Illinois River and skipping rocks. Two funny stories about that:

1. As Mammie was trying to get out of the river she tripped and fell forward on her face. We all busted up and were laughing at her. She was hurling curse words and rocks at us as if we were the ones who tripped her. We all thought it was HILARIOUS, but there was a guy that we met and were talking to that clearly felt awkward and didn't know how to respond to our cruelty to the elderly. (If you know Mammie this makes it all that much more hilarious).

This is Mammie right after she fell and a cute little girl that we met and was playing nearby.

2. Nancy was driving after the river and after an hour of driving she said she felt like she had a rock in her swimming suit that she was sitting on. When we finally arrived at our destination she pulled out this:

TOO FUNNY! We joked that it was round before she sat on it for hours.

It wound up being a family event with everyone gathering together. It was very fun.

This is Mammie in front of her old restaurant. She owned Judy and Marty's and I think she spent the entire time hearing all the gossip of the town, because she had MANY stories of scandal and intrigue. It was entertaining.

Musings by me

I think Justin Beiber

= Donny Osmond back in the day

Do you agree?

Strange little cycle

About 3 years ago I was sitting in pharmacology and barely keeping my eyes open. I browsed people.com to keep myself awake and found pictures of movie stars who were wearing skinny jeans. I was horrified. I thought it was some kind of terrible joke. I even told Richard, "if skinny jeans come back, I would rather be completely out of style than wear those kind of jeans." Well, here I am 3 years later with my own pair of skinny jeans. It is so weird, I can just imagine if my 18 year old self had seen me in those pants (My 18 year old self would have been embarrassed and disgusted). At that time I equated "tight-ankle" jeans with mullets and El Camino Cars. What is this style all about?? Why are the eighties coming back? Strange.

We love to go camping, but when our Memorial Day camping trip fell through I couldn't handle the idea of being at home on one of my few days off from work. So Friday morning between patients I looked up info on travel to New York City. You see, I am a little obsessed with that city. In some part because of my love for the movie You've Got Mail. I love the hustle and bustle of the city. I love that this is where people want to visit when they come to America. I have always had a dream of living there and I think I realize that will never actually happen. So it was an obvious first choice for a get-away weekend. I booked the tickets Friday night and we left at 7 am.

This is us on the train from Richmond to NY. It was great. very low key. You only have to get there 20-30 min before your train leaves and you have tons of room. The train on the way

home had a footrest and the seat reclined, so I slept for 3 hours very comfortably.

Initially we stood in the tkts line to go to a broadway show. Finally I got sick of it and went to the box

office for Mary Poppins we bought box seats for 30 bucks a piece which is a pretty good deal.

Wearing a backpack really makes you sweaty.

We went to dinner at this Korean place. It was really good and close to the hotel. They grilled the food right there in front of us on this tiny mini grill. We had no idea what we were eating I am just praying that we didn't eat dog.

For me the highlight of the trip was going to this little cafe in uptown the that was on You've Got Mail. It's called cafe

lalo. it was super crowded, but the ambience is cool. I mean check out this picture, it is GLOWING!

We went down to times square at

night just to see the spectacle of it all. It was a spectacle. We saw these drunk girls that were hanging all over these guys in their Navy uniforms and all I could think about was all the STD's I learned about it school(bad I know).

Walked to central park

We tried to go to Sunday Brunch at the boathouse in central park. We got "weeded out" from the ridiculous waiting list. We were told the wait was 1 1/2 hours and they had "just run out of the pagers." We went back 3 times asking if they had any

more pagers and each time they had "just run out"

Instead we went to brunch at the City

Grill in uptown, no wait and the food was good.

Then onto Mary Poppins on Broadway. Loved the show. It was a really fun one. We were hoping for

Lion King, but Mary Poppins was not a bad choice. Plus the box seats were super cheap and the view wasn't that bad.

Got Doughnuts from a hole in the wall doughn

ut shop. ( The Doughnut Plant) Our favorite was mango doughnuts

Went to Museum of Natural History.

We wish we could have spent the ENTIRE day there. It was so cool. Also, we wished we would have had children there with us, because all the kids were loving it. One little boy came running across the room screaming to his mom...THIS IS AWESOME!!

Got "a New York slice" of pizza. The crust was incredible. Crispy on the bottom and so soft and yummy on the inside...mmmm. Wish I could go back there. Thank you Patzeria Pizza.

As you can see food was a highlight of our trip! We had a great time and didn't even make it to all the big tourist spots. Good thing I am going back for a girl's weekend in September.

A picture is worth a thousand words

This is what I saw when I was driving home from the river with my sisters. Turns out a woman from a nearby neighborhood decided she wanted to go for a walk on the wild side and drive on the wrong side of the road. She was really set on driving on that side despite Rich laying on the horn and slamming on his brakes; she just kept coming.

So after her insurance company gave us a check for her crossing the line, we went shopping for a new car. Unfortunately, they didn't have any 2009 Subaru Outbacks and we decided to upgrade to a 2010. We actually really liked the 2009's wagon style, which this one doesn't have. We now are used to the new style and we really like it.

Goofy posed picture, love it.

Until I figure it out...

Our computer crashed about a month ago and we got a mac. I like the mac, but I can't figure out how to access my photos to put them on the blog. So until I figure it out I'll leave you with this:

1. Tonight I was driving to the store and saw a license plate that said edbitme I had to laugh at that. Some may call me a heretic, but I just don't really get the hype. I heard a satire on the radio about Eclipse and I realized I enjoy making fun of Twilight more than I enjoy watching it. That being said, I know I will be seeing the movie on IMAX (my mother-in-law already got us tickets). I won't, however, declare my love for the series on my license plate.

2. Tonight my mom called for a "quick question." I am used to my mom asking me quick questions like, "Will amoxicillin cover for an ear infection AND be helpful after Braden has his wisdom teeth out?" or "Did my blood pressure med make me more sensitive to the sun?" or even "What is your address?" But this time she had a VERY important question. "So Michael and Jan are together, right?" and "Who got Jan pregnant, if it wasn't Michael?" and "Did Holly come before or after Jan?" Apparently, my mom is watching The Office on TBS, but was confused because the shows don't come on in order. I am glad I could be of service.

Hopefully, I will figure out the computer soon. I am sure you are all dying in anticipation for the pictures I will upload.

Three Amigas

My sistas came to visit. It was awesome. I love my sisters. We started the weekend by reminiscing and looking at old pictures.
We definitely laughed at some awkward looks.
For instance: this gem. We used to do these really dramatic dances to Kurt Bestor music on Sundays after church. We would take off our dresses and dance in our slips.
We decided to recreate this pose.
On Friday morning J&L spent the morning sleeping in and hanging out with Richard.
Then we went to hang out at the James River. It was quite the ordeal to get over to the rocks to bathe in the sunlight. We finally made it to the rocks and as we were leaving J got enough courage to lift her feet up and let the river carry her downstream. It looked like so much fun L and I had to join in.
We had so much fun floating down the river and then running back up to do it again. The only downfall was scraping my bum on the rocks.


We went shopping and went to Busch Gardens. We did every ride there was (for adults) at the park. It is a tough job but we persevered and accomplished the goal.

Love these girls. I am going to miss L while she is Sister Schmidt on her mission in Ukraine for the next 18 mos.