It Could Have Been a Lot Worse!

Unless you live in a media vacuum, you know by now that Eastern Oklahoma was blasted pretty hard by the ice storm this week. The statistic that boggles my mind is this: two-thirds of the Tulsa metro area was without power Monday night. Fortunately for us, Sapulpa was blessed to be in the lucky third that never lost power.

Not that we haven't felt the effects, of course. The above pictures are from around our apartment complex. Nick has not had school yet this week; I am assuming it's because not enough staff can make it in. We're still waiting to hear about tomorrow, as many of the districts around us have already announced that they will be closed again. The funny thing is, we had to move south for Nick to have his first "snow days"; Pete and I can't remember school ever being closed for 3 days in a row when we were kids, either. Probably would have happened in '79 if that blizzard hadn't hit during Christmas break!

The down side for the kids is that there's no fun snow to go out and play in. Some of the older kids around us did try "sledding" down one of the hills, with the ice crunching and crackling like crazy under them. But it rained all day on Tuesday, so most of the ice was washed away by the end of the day. Driving anywhere has been a huge headache, thanks to thousands of downed trees and nonfunctioning traffic lights.

To make things even more interesting, Pete has been suffering from gallstones and was schedule to have his gallbladder removed on the 20th. His pre-op testing was cancelled on Tuesday because the hospital was running on a generator. Early this morning, he developed another severe pain attack that sent us to the emergency room at about 10:30 am. Long story short, he actually ended up having the surgery tonight, instead of next week. All I can say is, thank God it didn't happen on Monday! The hospital was a zoo and traffic was nasty, but at least everything was up and running, and we got there in time. He is recovering well and should be home tomorrow.

I am very tired. It has been a long week.

A Parade, and some Perspective

I was going to just write about Sapulpa's Christmas Parade tonight, but first I have to admit, it finally happened to me. I was shopping in downtown Sapulpa tonight because they were offering special extended hours and some other little perks. I exchanged maybe 3 or 4 sentences with the clerk in one of the stores. As she rang up my purchase, she said to me, "You're not from around here, are you?"

Yes, it was inevitable. I KNOW I have a Midwest "accent" -- this was just the first time that someone actually commented on it. Just one of those little reminders that we are still "outsiders" here. At least she'll remember me if I come back, which I probably will; I like the store a lot.

Anyway, what I meant to write about was the parade. It was last Saturday at 6pm, and I think Amelia had the most fun of anyone -- she is just at that parade-loving age right now. Nick was being the big boy and acting kind of bored, but he was happier when we went to Sonic for milkshakes afterward.

Here are some random observations on the first Christmas parade I have ever been to:
1) Christmas parades are, apparently, a big thing in the South. Every town has one. Hey, it was 50 degrees outside, after dark! And we had ice cream!

2) There were more churches in it than politicians. That would NEVER happen in Chicago, regardless of the occasion.

3) No business, apparently, was too small to participate. We saw the Arby's mascot (a giant oven mitt) and the Quizno's mascot (a giant shake). We estimated that only about half of the town was watching the parade, because the other half was in it.

4) There was the usual assortment of beauty pageant queens, Miss Teen, Miss Junior Teen, etc.; most of them riding in convertibles and the like. But Miss Creek County was DRIVING a John Deere tractor! In her formal gown and crown, doing the parade wave and everything. That would never happen in Chicago either.

5) Santa was at the end, of course. However, since he was riding in the lift bucket of a fire truck that actually had two lifts, there were two Santas, so one could face each way. Try and explain that to your kids (luckily, ours didn't ask)!

A View From God's Country

The above is a shot of a sunset I took from the second-floor balcony at the back of our building. Sure couldn't get that kind of view in Berwyn, hmm? I think I notice awesome sunsets more often than planes in the sky.

The rest of the pictures are from a recent day trip. We decided to get out and explore one of the local parks a couple of weekends ago. Lake Sahoma is a popular fishing spot, but there's also a small playground and picnic area that was perfect for a picnic lunch. We then went down the road to Pretty Water Lake, which is... pretty! Okay, they could have come up with a more imaginative name. But it has a nice trail around it which we had fun exploring. Supposed to have a waterfall too, but as you can see from the picture of Amelia (standing in the "bed" of the "waterfall"), there isn't much water to fall right now. It's been very dry for the past month.

It's finally getting cold here, though the snow on Friday just missed us, so we probably won't be doing much more exploring until spring. Now please, no blizzards up north when we drive up for Christmas, okay?

All That Jazz

Nick's school apparently loves to put on big musical productions. Being named Freedom School, they overhype the patriotic stuff sometimes, but they put on a pretty nice show for Veterans' Day. They did one show in the evening for families, then another one during school hours later in the week for local Veterans' groups. The kids seemed to be having fun and, yes, the costumes were all cute. Each grade had something slightly different. Next year Nick's class will get to wear sequined red suspenders!

Not surprisingly, the Christmas program is coming up. I'm sure it will be a blast, but I have a problem with the costume thing this time. The Veterans' Day program wasn't too bad; he just needed to wear a white button-up shirt and dark pants. But for Christmas, he is an elf, and he has to wear either a red turtleneck and green sweatpants, or a green turtleneck and red sweatpants. I found a red turtleneck with no problem. Now I have to somehow find a pair of green sweatpants, for a boy, by December 10th! What were they thinking???

Happy 3rd Birthday Amelia!

Isn't she the pouty princess?

Really, though, she had a lot of fun once Mommy stopped taking those annoying pictures and let her go play some games. You can't go wrong with Chuck E. Cheese!

Halloween in Tulsa!

This year's costumes require explaining, don't they? Nick is Dialga, one of his favorite Pokemon. Look it up on Google if you want to see a picture of it, but it's basically a dragon-looking thing. This costume would not have been possible without that wonderful stuff called "fun foam"!

Amelia is a jellyfish queen. Or maybe the queen jellyfish. I don't know that jellyfish even have queens, but the other thing about fun foam is, in the same aisle of the craft store there are also these nifty foam crowns. We had already decided on making a jellyfish costume at that point, so why not just add an original touch to it?

We had a great Halloween. Our church held a huge Fall Festival on Sunday, and we went Trick-or-Treating last night. I have learned two very important things to keep in mind when selecting/designing next year's costumes.

First, they must be durable enough to survive a Moon Bounce. There were two at the church festival, actually, and the kids probably spent about 50% of their time in them. Amelia's costume was easy to remove each time she went in; Nick's had to be repaired before Trick-or-Treating. There were plenty of girls in frilly princess dresses, and that didn't stop any of them. No kid who is able can resist jumping. The Festival was a lot of fun and at the end, the kids got to go "Trunk-or-Treating" around the cars (of those who chose to participate) in the parking lot -- very clever idea.

Second, out here people like to wait until it actually gets dark before they start Trick-or-Treating. We were invited by two of Pete's co-workers to go Trick-or-Treating with their families in southwest Tulsa. So we tried to take the kids around our apartment complex starting at 6:00, but hardly anyone was ready yet, and we didn't get a single kid at our door before we left to meet the others at 7:00.

But we did have a great time Trick-or-Treating. There were four kids in all, and I'm glad the other parents brought flashlights, because it really was dark! We were in a nice but hilly neighborhood with no sidewalks -- at least Amelia was visible with her fluttering "tentacles". The kids got a workout running from house to house and up and down hills, stairways, etc. The weather was perfect. Fall is definitely the best season in Oklahoma.

It would have been nice to see more of the kids in our complex and maybe meet a few more neighbors here, but on the other hand, it was nice to get out. We can always invite Nick's friends in for leftover candy today, there's plenty of it!

How Would YOU Celebrate Your 100th Birthday?

Above: Heritage Park, Sapulpa, OK

Guess what -- Oklahoma turns 100 this year! Believe me, we have been bombarded with this fact everywhere we go.

Most municipalities in Oklahoma received special funding from the state for projects celebrating the centennial. Sapulpa chose to erect a giant bronze statue of a buffalo at the new exit off the turnpike that leads into town. Click here for a description of the project, and a picture, if you really want to see it.

Okay, the giant bison does look pretty majestic mounted at the top of his hill, you can't help but see it on the way into town, and it celebrates the state's Indian heritage, etc., etc.

But I like American Heritage Bank's centennial project better. They celebrated their centennial a couple of years ago, and erected a new park as a gift to the city of Sapulpa. The park is perfectly located right next to the library, and I have to say, it is the coolest playground we have ever been to. Click here for the official blurb on Heritage Park, or just scroll down and let Nick and Amelia show you their favorite parts!

NOTE: This is the only park I have ever been to with Amelia, where she actually asks to get down from the swings -- so she can go climb in the "tower". Now that is a powerful attraction.

Pictures (finally)

Amelia "driving" a pink Jeep, Nick on a giant slide -- both having a blast! (Read previous post.)

Family Fun, Country Style

This weekend we went to the Creek County Fair. Creek County is a "collar county" next to Tulsa and includes Sapulpa, a few other small towns, and... lots of farms and cattle and stuff. We got to see real longhorns!

Amelia's favorite part: looking at the pigs, cows, ducks, chickens, etc. Nick's favorite part: riding all the rides once the Midway opened up. At least there was something for everyone! We all had a great time. Corn dogs and apple pie for dinner, too. Ain't that America?

Pete managed to sneak in a fried Twinkie; I resisted the fried Oreos. If you can poke a stick into it and dip it it batter, you can fry it! Better yet, how about a do-it-yourself fry bar? Bring it in and we'll batter and fry it for you! I think it could catch on.

I have a few pictures but haven't found the cable to download them onto the computer yet. It must be hiding in the same box as the keyboard and mouse...

Toto, we're definitely not in Berwyn anymore!

At last, we are connected again! Still haven't found all of the components of our main computer setup -- how could I forget where both the mouse AND the keyboard are packed?? -- but at least we have our trusty laptop, and finally, a working connection. I hate unpacking almost as much as I hate packing.

So we're all here and getting settled in, and there is now one room in the apartment with no boxes in it. Bathrooms count, don't they? Besides letting you all know that we're still alive and functioning, I thought I'd share some of our first few weeks' observations on how life in Sapulpa is different from life in Berwyn.

1) Driving to the grocery store: I have to go farther, but it still just takes me about 15 minutes, because I can go 60 mph for half of the trip.
2) Weird local things we've found in the grocery store: ground bison, anyone? You can get it at the Wal-Mart Supercenter!
3) Driving on the expressways (in and around Tulsa): 65 mph in the city!! And do you know what you see at the end of almost every on-ramp? A yield sign! How the $%#* do you yield when you're trying to merge at that speed?!!? There is plenty of room, anyway. We have yet to get caught in anything even resembling a real traffic jam.
4) Gas is less expensive (around $2.80/gal.), milk is more expensive ($3.60 to $4.00!). I haven't figured out yet if we're saving or not!
5) Going to church: all church is "high church" here. We visited both Methodist and Lutheran congregations, and didn't see another soul wearing jeans in either place. Everyone was friendly anyway, but we can't get away with being ignorant Yankees for long...

That's all I can think of tonight. More to come!

Safe Arrival

Just wanted to let you all know that we arrived safely in Tulsa at about 10:30 pm last night. We got a later start than we had hoped, but the drive went pretty smoothly for everyone. Even the animals did well; each of them slept for the majority of the trip. That's what they do at home during the day, anyway! We are all packed into a hotel room-with-kitchenette right now, so it's going to be crowded for the next few days, but hopefully the apartment will be ready by Thursday or so. We're just happy to be here safe and sound, with all of our family together again.

Forget gas stations, find an Office Max!

This is Sarah's official "moving disaster narrowly avoided" story...

I had a little adventure the day of the closing on our house. I had looked up directions to the title company's office, where we were meeting, very briefly on Mapquest. I decided that I knew a better way to go, so I didn't print the map. So, you know what's coming next, right?


To make a long story short, I was wrong, and got completely lost in Glenview. There are no square intersections in Glenview. Apparently, no gas stations either -- and yes, I am a female, and not afraid to stop and ask for directions. So, I was starting to panic, and came to a shopping plaza that had an Office Max in it. Okay, I thought, Office Max sells maps, maybe I can figure out where I need to go.


When I realized how far I'd gone, I very nicely asked the guy behind the desk if I could use their phone to call the lawyer's office and ask them to please wait for me. (Nope, no cell phone with me -- oh the horror!) After the call, I kind of offhandedly asked the guy if he knew where the intersection I was looking for was. He had no idea, so he went to the computer, entered the address on Mapquest, and printed out both directions and the map for me. No charge. Wow, what service!!


It still took me another 45 minutes to get to the title company, thanks to a nasty traffic jam on the Kennedy, but at least they were still waiting for me! I owe that guy at Office Max a big thank you -- and no, I am NOT going to miss Chicago traffic jams, AT ALL!! I'm ready to move to Oklahoma now!

First Steps

The great journey has started...

Pete and Nick arrived in Tulsa on Monday. Pete started work, and Nick started school, today. As if the stress of this crazy move wasn't enough, some nasty stomach bug latched onto Pete and hit him while they were trying to take in a Tulsa Drillers baseball game Monday night. So they spent the rest of that evening in the emergency room, as he was so sick that he was passing out. Welcome to Tulsa!

Fortunately, they let him go, and he was well enough to take Nick to the Air and Space Museum yesterday, so they could actually do something fun together. Nick put up with the whole thing amazingly well, and couldn't say enough about the museum. "They had real spaceships that we could go inside and push buttons and stuff!" And 2 sky shows. I have a feeling we'll be going there a lot.

Life does go on, major disruption or not:
1) Amelia has learned to talk on the phone now. Hard to remember that this kid wasn't even talking yet 15 months ago!
2) Nick turned 7 today, and finally has his first loose tooth! Which brings up the question, what does the tooth fairy pay these days? Anyone??

As for me (Sarah), I'm just packing, packing, packing...