Pardon me while I reminisce . . .

This morning when I got online this is what I saw on my homepage:

"NY's Tavern on the Green restaurant bites the dust"

I was so sad to read the news this morning. I immediately began to reminisce about the trip my mom, my sister and I took to NYC in March '08. We had heard so much about this beautiful restaurant & we made sure we had reservations for lunch one day during our trip.

I'm outside waiting for the doors to open for lunch.

So beautiful!

My mom & my sister

Our view.....sigh....

After we had finished eating we took a carriage ride through Central Park.
I have such wonderful memories of this trip and our lunch at Tavern On The Green. I wanted to share a few of them today after reading the sad news that it will be closing. :(

Christmas 2009

Z. & K. finally arrived yesterday afternoon along with our grand-dog, Tanner. We bought Tanner a little sweater for Christmas and when I say little that's what it was. Actually, too little. I didn't even pay attention to the size when I bought it.

Bless his heart, he just sat there while they were trying to get it over his head. Z. finally got it to go over his head while my hubby pulled.

Look at this sweet little puppy!

We are really enjoying him.

Anyway, back to the sweater. It didn't fit at all. It was way too short for his body, but I had to take a picture anyway, just because he's so adorable.
My niece was supposed to fly back to Denver Wednesday night from Oklahoma City and her flight was cancelled. Thursday she went back to the airport and her flight was cancelled again due to the blizzard. Later the airport closed along with all the interstates and turnpikes in OK.

What would normally be about a 15 or 20 minute drive to the airport took Z. over two and a half hours, but he was able to go get her and she spent the night with them. Because she couldn't get a flight out for a few days, she came with K. & Z. yesterday and we were able to enjoy her company for Christmas.

K. & her cousin K. are 7 months apart and have always been best friends.
Our son couldn't make it yesterday because the roads were too bad and he had to work this morning. We opened our presents without him. That was a first. We've always all been together when we open our presents. This year because of the weather lots of plans were changed.
Z. loves OSU so every year I have to get him a couple of orange things.

I found this little tv tray a while back & knew he'd love it.
My hubby got up this morning and made another delicious breakfast for all of us.

My niece's dad came and got her after breakfast. Her mom will take her to Dallas to catch her flight Sunday. I know it was an inconvenience for her to miss her flights, but it was a treat to have her stay overnight with us on this Christmas day 2009.

B. couldn't even make it to work this morning because his car was stuck.

Later this afternoon K. & Z. headed to Z.'s parents' house. They took a couple of our shovels and stopped by B.'s house on the way and helped him dig his car out.

Yay! B. finally made it home this evening around 5:30.
We finally got to exchange our gifts.

Every year I run out of boxes and have to be creative.

This year B.'s new socks were in a tomato paste box. :)

His daddy just made him a three-egg ham & cheese omelet for dinner since he's missed the breakfasts we've had the past couple of days.

We're all full, safe, warm, relaxed & happy!

Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I saw this on the news this morning and decided to take a picture of it rather than explain all the conditions that make for a blizzard. This is what was going on in my neck of the woods yesterday.

I took this picture from my front door this morning when I got up. All was much more calm & beginning to be bright.

We always cook Christmas breakfast for my parents, D.'s mom & our children if they're here.

We've had this tradition for years and years. This year would be different because of the weather. My parents were able to come because they live close enough they could walk, but my mother-in-law wouldn't be able to come. D. didn't even think he could get out of the drive way to go get her. :( Our kids weren't able to come yesterday either.

Here is a picture I took of our tree this morning.
My mom's so cute. She put trash bags over her jeans and tied them up with yarn, because there were some pretty high drifts. She said it actually worked very well!

I told my parents I had to take their picture. The gal on the weather said we may not see weather like this on Christmas again in our lifetime. :)

Come on in, Mom!

My sweet hubby cooked all the breakfast. All I did was put the frozen biscuits on a cookie sheet and pop them in the oven. He fried up the ham and bacon, scrambled and fried eggs & even made gravy.

Several different loaves of bread were given to us over the holidays ~ good bread like banana nut, pumpkin/cranberry & coconut. It was all very yummy!

After breakfast D. went out to shovel off the driveway.
He and our neighbor were chatting it up.
Since our neighbor was out there I asked him if he wouldn't mind taking a picture of us.

Then Dan took this one of me.

K. just called and said they are going to try to come home after while.

B. is going to try too, if he's able to get out of his apartment complex and the roads look okay.

Until they get here.....

our tree remains like this....

and we wait to open presents.

"Hurry!!!!"

Christmas Eve 2009

Happy Christmas Eve Everyone!

The weather has been pretty crazy here in Oklahoma today. We're having a blizzard. All of the interstates and turnpikes are closed. My poor niece's flight to Denver from OKC was cancelled last night and she spent the night at a hotel and was back at the airport this morning waiting to see what was going to transpire. Along with all that she had food poisoning. Bless her heart, she was so sick and then her flight was cancelled again. My sweet son-in-law went to the airport to get her so she could come stay with them. I'm so glad she won't have to be at a hotel alone on Christmas.

Also, it took my brother-in-law 4 hours to get home from work this afternoon. It is normally a 45 minute drive. I was so happy to hear that he made it home safely.

My family was supposed to have Christmas at my sister's house (about an hour away) at noon today. We had to cancel due to the bad weather.

Instead, my sister and her girls and D. & I went to my parent's house for Christmas lunch.

Here's the 7-layer dip I made... (I made a huge platter thinking there would be at least 5 more people eating on it)

My sister and her girls.

History was made today in Oklahoma.

This is most snow Oklahoma has ever gotten in December.....ever!

Our son was going to come home after he got off work this afternoon. He was so disappointed he couldn't come. K. & Z. are planning on coming tomorrow, but we'll see.

When I got home from my parents' house I wanted D. to take my picture outside. He told me to wait a minute and he walked to the Christmas tree and brought me this present to open. It's ironic that the wrapping paper says "Let It Snow." :)

He got me these cute boots! Perfect!!

I'm thankful we have a nice warm home with plenty of food (& electricity). I'm thankful our children are home safe and sound. Even though we may not be together today like we were planning, we will get together in the next couple of days.

Meanwhile, we're snowed in and I'm happy. It's really quite beautiful.

We're no longer dreaming of a white Christmas. We're experiencing it!

Love to all of my blogging friends. Merry Christmas!

Y

Valerie

PW Book Signing!

Recently I reconnected (on facebook) with a childhood friend. We began to talk about the "Pioneer Woman." My friend told me that Ree (PW) was going to be in OKC on Tues. Dec. 22 for a book signing. "Thank you, Lynette!" Perfect....I was off work yesterday and headed to "the city."

Click here to see the PW's website.

Yay! My signed book! :)

I left my house in plenty of time to get there. It normally would take about 45 minutes and the signing was at 12:30. I've been to this area 199 times, at least, and this time I took a different exit and got lost! I should have just gone the way I knew. Oh well.....I called my daughter and she talked me through how to get there from where I was. Crazy! I'm glad I left home early!

I knew there would be a line and I prayed that I would be in line beside just the right person/people. I talked for almost an hour to the sweetest mom and teenage daughter. The time flew by having someone to talk to, and we talked non-stop. :)

I had said to D. that morning "Wonder how many new friends I'm gonna make today?!!" :) It was a lot of fun. This is the first time I've been to a book signing.

We're laughing in this next picture because my "new friends" were kind enough to take pictures of us with my camera and my phone. They each took about 6 or 7 pictures. The cameras just kept clicking and we got really tickled. Ree is just about the sweetest thing....very personable, very nice & simply adorable. It was such a treat to get a signed copy of her cookbook. The recipes look amazing. I like it because there are tons of pictures and step-by-step instructions.
K. was able to get off work a couple of hours early so we could meet up and finish our shopping. I shopped at a fun place called The Market for over an hour waiting for her. I told her it was so pleasant to take my time going from booth to booth while listening to Christmas music. "Oh Holy Night" was playing at one point (my very favorite Christmas song) and I could hear people humming and whistling. I was near a lady pushing her beautiful little girl in a stroller talking so sweetly to her about an ornament that had baby Jesus on it.

K. and I met up and went to the nearby mall and finished our shopping.

Our friends Jon & Stephanie are home from Germany for Christmas so we were able to meet up with Stephanie for an early dinner. Stephanie has a blog where she is always sharing her wonderful experiences in Germany.
After dinner K. invited me to her house for coffee. :)

Turns out Stephanie's gift to me was an antique Coc@-Col@ crate full of packages of flavored coffee, cocoa, and cappuccino. (I can't believe I forgot to take a picture of it!) What a nice gift! Kris & I enjoyed a cup of Kringle Krunch when we got to her house.

I'm so thankful I was off work and was able to spend the day in OKC with Ree :), K. & Stephanie. The weather was perfect. I didn't even need my coat. My only set-back was getting lost, but as frustrating as it was, I'm convinced I needed to be there exactly when I was. I met two very sweet new friends. What a wonderful, fun day!!!

Third Annual Heart to Heart Sisters Christmas Dinner

Our Bible study group had such a great time last night at our third annual Christmas dinner.

We have it at a local restaurant. The atmosphere is so nice and the food is delicious. I refrained from taking pictures of food this year. The salad was super delicious! Our main course was brisket that was so tender we didn't need a knife. Yummmmmmmm!

For dessert we had cheesecake with a beautiful strawberry on top with drizzled chocolate.

I took this next picture of the group and then set the timer and hopped in the next one.

We play a fun exchange game where we all sit in a circle as a story is read about

Mr. and Mrs. Wright. (there are several versions similar to this one).

Every time you hear the word "right" or "left" you are to pass the gift in that direction. I warned our little server who was sweet to read the story for us, that she needed to go slow. I guess she didn't go slow enough. At one point one gal had three gifts in her lap and somehow at the very end my mom ended up with her own gift. That's not supposed to happen but she didn't mind. We had lots of fun and there was lots of laughter.

We recently finished "The Inheritance" Bible study by Beth Moore. The key verse is found in Psalm 16:6. One of our ladies made this sign as her exchange gift. How special! I'm pretty sure she got several orders after everyone saw this. I love it & I put my order in!

(Sorry K. that it looks like something is shooting out of your ears. I guess I took the picture too quickly to notice what was in the background) :)
I'm so thankful for each of these ladies. We will start another study in February & I can't wait!

My Weekend

I called my 94 year old Nannie a few weeks ago and during our conversation she said "I sure hope you and D. can come see me before Christmas." I knew it was going to be next to impossible for the two of us to go before Christmas. D. was going to be working this weekend, so I asked my sister if she thought she could go with me. She's very busy, but she really wanted to go and felt like we should.

This past week Nannie was admitted in the hospital. She was sent to a rehab/nursing home facility on Friday.

Before we left town we went by to see our friend who just got out of the hospital. She has spent the past two weeks in the hospital. She's home and doing well now thank God! She is a friend we've had since we were little girls. Another friend met us at her house and we had the best visit. We didn't even leave town until around 11:00 or so.

We had driven a little over an hour and it was misting pretty heavily. All of a sudden through the sunroof I saw a black strip of rubber. I didn't really give it a lot of thought, but was curious as to what it was. We stopped in a little town at a McDonald's and it turns out it was the seal from my front windshield. It was barely hanging on. An older gentleman inside McDonald's told us we needed to get it fixed because our windshield could completely break. Yikes! He said there was nothing in their little town. "They roll up the streets on Friday evening" he said. :) We found a store down the road that sold fireplaces and we asked if they had any duct tape we could borrow. The guy found some and we fixed it and it stayed on throughout the rest of the trip. Duct tape is amazing isn't it? So what if we looked like rednecks. At least it was black.

Since we weren't really on a time schedule, so we decided to go about 30 minutes (one way) out of the way to a little town where we lived when we were little. This town was where I lived when I was born and we moved when I was going into first grade. Even though I was young I remember a lot about this time of my life. I've been wanting to go back through here for a long time and I was so thankful my sister said "Let's go!"

We found our old house. :) It sure seemed a lot bigger back then.
We called one of our closest friends who we still keep in contact with from time to time and she was home so we went by to see her. We attended church together when we lived there.

She was very surprised & thrilled! We didn't stay long because we really were needing to get to Arkansas.

This is the church where we attended and where my dad was pastor. This was his very first church to pastor. The front part and steeple were added since we were here. We used to live next door to the church, but that house has since been torn down. My sister was just a little girl - around six years old - and she climbed on top of the church and was sitting on the very top edge. My mom was looking up at her with a fly swat in her hand. :) She kept my mom very busy and very worried a good part of the time. I have a ton of stories about P. :) We just had to go by and take a picture.
We hadn't eaten, so of course we needed to do that before seeing Nannie. Of course we just had to get Starbuck's after dinner.

We finally arrived to see Nannie. She had no idea we were coming. She was just sitting in her room alone in the quiet when we walked in. She was so happy to see us. She is amazing for 94 years old!
After a little while my dad's sister came and we really enjoyed our visit with her. Nannie's children all take such great care of her.
We talked & laughed non-stop the entire trip. We had such a great time. My poor sister didn't get home last night until after 11:00 p.m. She lives about 60 miles from me.

K., Z., and little Tanner spent the night last night. K. had her work Christmas party here in town. Tanner slept with us until they got home last night. He is the sweetest little dog I've ever been around. They went back home this afternoon.

Later this afternoon the doorbell rang and it was my best friend since 5th grade, her husband and her parents. They were in town for a family reunion and made a quick stop by our house. I'm so glad they did. I have so many wonderful memories spent with my friend and her parents. They used to take me to the lake with them every summer for a week. Her very patient dad taught me how to water ski. They also took me snow skiing with them one year. I went to the State Fair every year with them. I spent many a night at their house and can still taste her mom's waffles and bacon she'd make us on Saturday mornings. It was such a treat to see them today!

Last Christmas we bought each other Christmas gifts and never did get together.

She had my gift from last year and I had hers. Just this morning K. and I were talking about her and I had actually looked in the gift bag and took out the gift I got her to see exactly what I had bought her. It was an ornament dated 2008. How funny. I had no idea they were even in town.

She gave me this beautiful dish towel. "A friend loveth at all times." So true. She has been a faithful & loyal friend all these years. We just don't see each other enough.

What a great weekend!