THE BIRD FEEDER

A few weekends ago, hubby and I went to Home Depot and bought a bird feeder. It was against hubby's better judgement, because to put it lightly, he is feed up with the barn swallows, that we have around our house.

They built their nest, on the ledge above our front door. It is built out of mud. So, we have mud and bird droppings on our front porch all the time. It is a big mess. Hubby did some research and did you know, that it is against the law to tear down their nest, because they are migratory birds. So, I guess they will be leaving. The sooner, the better. Frankly, I think they are birds with an attitude.

But, even though hubby didn't want to get a bird feeder, he enjoys sitting on the patio watching them. He will fill it at night time and the next afternoon it will be empty. He is all the time telling me about a certain bird. Lulu enjoys watching them also.

This is his favorite. He calls it the red headed bird.

I think this one is pretty.

These birds only eat off the ground. They eat what the others drop. I have heard that certain birds are ground feeders. I guess that is what these are. But, the cute thing is, one stands still, while the other ones picks up the seed and puts it in their mouth.

39 YEARS

We celebrated our 39th wedding anniversary by going out to eat last night. We went to a restaurant just a few miles above us. We probably wouldn't have gone to this restaurant if it wasn't close by. It was an old Victorian house that was moved in from another town and restored. It took over four years for it to be restored. They also added another addition onto it.

It is located on the highest hill in the county. It also has a country setting. I think that is what attracts most people to it.

The drive way leading up to the restaurant. The first time I saw it, I thought it was a horse farm.

It is hard to get a good picture of the restaurant since there are so many trees in front of it.



I just borrowed one from their web site.


The decor on the inside is what you would expect.

This was my meal, almond crusted shrimp. It was very good.


This was hubby's meal, a t-bone. When he saw it, he said that he would not be able to eat all of it. But, when he had finished eating, the waitress ask him if he would like for her to wrap up his bone for him to take home to his dog.

These are my roses.

CUTE PICS

Karlie loves the pool unlike A.



For some reason this is my favorite look.

This one reminds me of C when he was her age.

FATHER'S DAY 2010

Well, since it is father's day, hubby got to choose where we would go eat. He chose breakfast at I-HOP. It would not have been my choice, but they do have the best pancakes.

T sent him a cookie bouquet. It is an OSU theme and hey, he loves anything that has to do with OSU.
K, J and A sent him a basket of goodies also. It has coffee, carmel corn, and nuts and lot of other food. We haven't sampled any of it yet. We are still full from I-HOP, but I am sure before the day is over, we will be sampling it.

Lulu sat and watched me take the pictures. I also need to add that it is very hot here.

MY DRIVE THIS WEEK-POST FLOODING

On my drive this week, I surveyed the damage from the flood. There is evidence that the water was over the roads a lot closer to our house than we thought. This creek is probably about a one-tenth of a mile from our house and it must have overflowed it banks, for water to have gotten over the road. When I was telling the kids on Monday that I was worried because of the creek being close by. They all said, what creek. That is probably because when we usually drive over it there is not any water in it. I sure am glad that I didn't know how close the flooding was on Monday or I might have been freaking out. Because, I sure don't want to have leave my house in a boat again.

The creek.

This was once a softball field.
But, this almost 3 million dollar home for sale, that is less than 1/4 mile from us didn't seem to get any damage. Sorry, can't seem to get a good picture of it that will do it justice.

I borrowed this picture from realtor.com. It is a lot better since I can't get inside the gates, the realtor can.

KARLIE AND C

C and Karlie's aunt on their dad's side is getting married in July. M hosted a shower for her in N W Misouri last weekend. Here are some pictures of C and Karlie. Karlie in her cute little outfits.

MAJOR FLOODING(THE FLOOD IN LITTLE ROCK, AR.-1978)

We are experiencing major flooding in our city right now. We have already had over eight inches of rain in some parts of the city, since this morning. Hubby tried to get to work. He said he would go one direction and run into a flooded street, turn around and go another direction and then run into another flooded street. So, he finally gave up and called and closed his office. After three hours of trying to get to his office, he is now back home.

I think we are safe in our house, we are higher than most. But, the two major roads close to us are both flooded. All flights have been cancelled at Will Rogers airport in Oklahoma City.

This so reminds me of the big flood in Little Rock, Ar. in September of 1978. Tracy was 5 and Michelle was 2. We lived close to a creek. We received over 12 inches of rain in about three hours. I knew, probably within an hour of hubby leaving for work that morning, that our house was going to flood. I watched TV and paced and kept calling hubby and telling him that we were going to flood. Or course, there was no way he could get back home to us.

My neighbor's daughter had stayed home from school that day. So, our neighbor, who was at work, called and told her daughter to wade across the street to help me.  She knew that we were probably going to be evacuated and thought I would need help with the kids. The water was already up to her daughter's neck when she waded across.

I still remember hearing on TV that flooding in the Boyle Park area was imminent and evacuation procedures would begin immediately. Tracy was crying and Michelle was laughing, because she was too little to understand what was happening.

Then, there was a loud knock on the door. It scared the kids, but I told them it was probably someone to help us. No one else would be out in weather like this. It was our neighbor, Mark, who was a police officer and lived across the street from us. He said he would be back in a few minutes with a boat to get us out. I remember asking him where we were going and he said, as he was walking away, higher ground. He told hubby later, that when they said for all the police officers to start evacuating residents in our area, he thought of me first, because he always saw our little kids in the yard playing and knew we would be in the house.

So, like he said, he came back in a few minutes with a boat. He pushed the boat into our front door and Tracy,  Michelle, myself and our neighbor's daughter climbed in.  He then pushed the boat across the street to another neighbors house and Mrs. Johnson  and a woman and baby, whose car had flooded out in front of Mrs. Johnson's house,  also climbed in the boat with us.  He then pushed it over to another neighbor's house but they said they were going to wait until later.  Mark then said, well why don't you at least put your dogs in the boat.  So, they did go get their hound dogs and put them in.   He then pushed us up the hill. And, like he said, to higher ground. When we got up the hill, he said, all I can tell you to do is to start knocking on doors and see if anyone will let you come in. The first door that we knocked on was an older lady and she took us in and gave us all dry clothes and started making lunch for us.  I am not sure what he did with the dogs, because they did not go in the house with us.  Maybe they stayed in the boat.

But, oh what a chore it was, when the water finally receded. The first thing we had to do was go in and start ripping all the carpet up and throw it away.  It took us about a year to get the house restored.  But, it looked better than ever after we did.

Also, we survived and that was what was most important. There were some down the street below us who didn't. There were little children that were swept out of their mother's arms. 

(These pictures were published in the Arkansas Democrat in a special edition a few weeks after the flood).

This picture was taken on our street.  We lived on the corner of 32nd and Wynne Drive. (3123 Wynne Drive). This picture is of our neighbor, Mr. Johnson, who lived across the street from us.  He is the one with overalls on and also the older man is Mr. Smith who lived two doors down from us on Wynne Drive.  The younger guy is Mark, a policeman and our neighbor, the one who took us out in a boat to safety.  They are standing in front of Mr. Smith's house. This was after the rain had stopped and the water had started receding.

This picture was taking at the end of our street.  This is where two children were swept out of their mother's arms.

(I added this picture that was borrowed from The Daily Oklahoman. This is the recent flooding in our city. This is just like the boat we went out in. But, at least it had stopped raining. When we were evacuated, it was still raining so hard, that we had to put our hand over our nose in order to breathe.)

MISS A EATS WATER MELLON

I don't think A likes water mellon. K said she tried hard to like it since her mommy and daddy were eating it, but she just couldn't.

MY WEEKLY DRIVE

Now on my weekly drive, I don't find animals out any more because it is too hot. But, I did find this old Bed and Breakfast located on Route 66 which is not far from us. It looks like it would have been fun to have stayed in it when it was open for business. It looks like something out of an old western movie.

The other half of it.

SUNRISE IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD

Hubby gets up every morning at 5:30. I do not. So, I asked him since he would already be up if he would take a picture of the sunrise. Well, the first picture was taken yesterday morning. Not exactly what I had in mind. It was cloudy. The second picture was taken this morning. This is what an Oklahoma sunrise looks like.

CUTE OR SCARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When I first saw this picture, I thought it was so cute. Then the more I looked at it, I thought it was kind of scary. But, K said Tucker never moved, he just looked at K like, well are you going to come and get her off of me.

PRETTY HORSES

I have passed this pasture many times. It is maybe one tenth of a mile from our house. But, I had never noticed any horses in it until today. I guess horses are like people, some are just a lot better looking than others. I thought these were so pretty. Their coats were really shiny.

KARLIE AND C'S MEMORIAL DAY

I think my grand babies in Kansas City spent most of their Memorial Day weekend at their neighborhood pool. M said she was worried about taking Karlie to the pool, but she was really good. She even fell asleep in her stroller. But, Karlie wasn't too sure, when she put her in the cold water for the first time.

MISS A'S MEMORIAL DAY

Miss A spent her Memorial Day helping Mom and Dad clean up the back yard. She loves this fountain.

She will not get in her pool.

After all her hard work she needed a bath.

We didn't really do anything for Memorial Day. We worked around the house. We hung more pictures. Yes, we have been in this house 8 months and still don't have all the pictures hung. Hubby went down to the farmers market Saturday morning and bought lots of fresh vegetables. So, I cooked those over the weekend. Hubby even worked on organizing the garage. A family just moved in across the street from us and in one week their garage is perfectly organized with everything hanging on the peg board. I think when hubby saw this, he felt kind of bad.