Christmas Eve 2005

Christmas Eve we went to lunch with my dad and Leanne at Mimi's Cafe. The food was pretty darned good. I'm not sure how often we'll go back, but it was a nice change from the same old, same old. After lunch, we spent some time at their house and exchanged gifts.

Their gift to Alyx was a crisp, new 50 dollar bill. Of course, he really had no concept of what $50 is. He just knew he had real money with which to buy some toys! Naturally, we went straight to Target after leaving dad's. He got a very cool triceratops and truck thingy. Happy boy. Oh yeah, Anthony & I got a bit O' cash as well. Anthony spent his on the Serenity and Brother's Grimm dvds and I spent mine on new boots!

After the newness had worn off on Alyx's new dinogear, he begged and begged to "open just one more present". We finally gave in and let him open them all. We figured with Santa gifts, a gift exchange with the neighbor boys and my family's gift exchange the next day it might not be a bad idea to spread the love, so to speak. That way he wouldn't be so overwhelmed all at once.

Ah well, enough blather....here's the link. Pics

My sister's Christmas gift

I did the scrapbook for my sister and brother-in-law's trip to NYC this summer as their Christmas gift this year. They loved it so much and it was very gratifying to see how touched they were. I only had the pictures a week and I was finishing the book on Christmas day (ok, so it was ALL day) and its a good thing they were an hour late getting here because I finished it 45 min after they were supposed to be here LOL!

NYC Scrapbook

Bricktown Canal Ride 2005

Mom, Alyx, Ethan and I went down to Bricktown Friday night for Santaland 3d but when we got there, we saw they were running the canal boat rides for free so we decided to do that first. We had such a great time doing it that we decided we didn't need to hit Santaland after all. Perhaps it was the 1 hour and 10 min wait in line and the fact we were all frozen after the ride... anyway, it was fun and the boys and I got these really cool lightup mouth things (I'll post a video of them once I figure out how). Here's the Pics

I'm a crafty girl.

I made the mistake many years ago of making all the presents for all the aunts/grandmas/mothers and now they expect it. I tried to not to do it one year and they all let me know about it.

So, anyway, here is this years project. As far as I know, none of the people getting this for Christmas visit this site so... but, if they do, well, then I guess they know what they are getting :)

Yet another family pic...

Wow. I now know what I do NOT want to be when I grow up - a portrait photographer. Three sets of parents/grandparents said, "what I really want for Christmas is a family picture of you kids together." Well, trying to mesh my sister's family schedule with mine... *heavy sigh* Well, lets just say it was hard. And by the time we did, we couldn't get an appointment with a professional. So, I volunteered to take it. I mean, I do take pictures all the time right? Oh my. Who knew.


Number 1: You need a lot of space to set up shop, otherwise you end up with this wierd perspective thing.
Number 2: Lighting. 'Nuff said.
Number 3: Setting the timer and running into the frame - gets old fast.
Number 4: Not everyone smiles everytime.
Number 5: there is not enough valium in the world....


So, we agreed that next year, if anyone asks for a pic for christmas we just offer to slit our own throats or pay them $10,000. {THAT IS A JOKE PEOPLE! We actually had a very good time together. Good grief! comment added after reading this ruined someone's day...}

Ah well, enough blathering... here they are.

Family Pics

Saturday Night Christmas Party

Saturday night we had our annual Christmas party with our Thai food friends. Colby and Jess hosted it at their new home out in BFE... no, wait... Shawnee, yes, Shawnee. Not everyone was able to make it this year, but those that did had a great time. There were Joe, Val, Doug, Colby, Jess, Tyler, Alyx, Anthony and I. Jessie made burritos. Doug made his famous cheese dip. Val made her yummy chocolate cake. We brought Taco Tico tacos! Woo! Woo!

Here are the pics: pics

2005 Family Pic

Well, here we are. It ain't great, but its done and everyone atleast has their eyes open and actually looking at the camera. Actually considering we just used the timer on the camera its not so bad...

2005 Christmas Card

I can't remember a year when Christmas cards have gone out as late as these will... but atleast they are going out and atleast they are not store bought. I'm a snob, what can I say. Actually, its just that I can never find a premade card that 'fits'... so, anyway, we debated between picture and alyx drawing something and all of us drawing something together and anthony drawing something. Welll, noone ever drew anything thing so I decided we were taking a pic tonight and getting them done. So, while I was going through the photos and designing the card, Anthony had started drawing... *sigh*

But, it was actually pretty funny I thought and I could still stuff the pic inside the card. So, now its done and will go out in the mail tomorrow.

Lights!

Well, here's the house. I'll try to get pics of the whole street later... as always, click the pic for a larger version. Btw, thanks John for clearing up the pic for me!!!


Here is our cul-de-sac... the perspective is a bit off, but, oh well... the image is best viewed larger. Bah! I just checked and you can't see crap in that picture. Well, actually, I guess all you can see is crap. I'll post the individual pics later so you can see how outta control a couple of my neighbors are.

Busy today. Update tomorrow.

Alyx's Tree

Oh my... Christmas is almost here and I am so unprepared this year. Typically, I am 95% done with my Christmas prep by Thanksgiving. You know, decorations up and done Thanksgiving night, Christmas cards made and ready to be mailed Dec. 1, presents made, presents bought. Not this year... I've bought a few gifts for Alyx, the Christmas decorating is less than half done. I've got most of the outdoor decorating done and the tree in the living room is up and half decorated. I don't know where my head has been this year, but its surely not been in the details. About all that I have actually finished this year is Alyx's tree in his room, which isn't really me finishing anything other than getting his things out of the attic and setting it up. He did all the decorating and he is so proud. So, this is all I'm going to post today and I'm gonna take the server downtime and try to get some things done so maybe I will have more pics to post next Tuesday. See ya!

For John.

Um. Ow. Ow. Ow. Did I mention, ow?

Not as bad as my whining suggested huh...


PS~John from Warcraft, not Raina's John ;)

The roof is on fire...

Around 3:30 am the Friday after Thanksgiving, the house behind us burned down (the first picture is taken from our back porch). We were still in Texas when it happened thank goodness. I don't think I'd care to have witnessed it. Although, our next door neighbor (his yard is to the right of ours in the above pic) was home and heard and saw nothing. He didn't even know about it until I pointed it out to him.

We still don't know what caused the fire, but apparently there was a problem with 911 and a cell phone. The people got out and used their cell phone to call 911. The call was routed to the OKC 911 service instead of Moore's service because the cell phone bill went to an OKC address. According to the local TV station, the fire department was delayed by 5-6 minutes due to the misrouting - enough time for the entire home to be destroyed. Its rather sad that the fire hydrant is located in the front yard. So close...

Thanksgiving 2005

This was our year to go to Anthony's family in Texas for Thanksgiving. We had lunch at Memaw's house, then went to visit Carolyn's side at Brenda's house, then back to Memaw's for dinner. Naturally, it was a great time with family, great food, and blah, blah, blah.

After lunch, Alyx and I played ball. He hit his first thrown ball!!! (as opposed to a ball on a T) It was very exciting! *bursting with pride* So, of course, there are a million pictures of the "ball game". After awhile, Anthony came and played with us, which meant I got to hit too instead of just pitching and chasing all the balls (phew - the chasing was a bit much as I was in my Vegas boots *snicker, snort*). Alyx was very impressed with my ability to hit the ball though. *very big grin*

Alyx was very happy (and we were very relieved since we are old and tire easily) that there were several kids at Brenda's house this year for him to play with. They played Red rover, red rover and "action heroes" until Uncle Bones showed up. Alyx had been anxiously awaiting his arrival so they could build a fire again. Last Christmas, Uncle Bones had taught Alyx how to build "a REAL fire" and he thought he was the big man then. There's some pix of that as well.

Ah well, enough yammering... here's the pix.
Thanksgiving Pix

Final Vegas post

Gambling… Winning…. Losing… Waiting... Pick-up Lines...

After tattoos on Monday and shopping all day Tuesday, we really hadn’t gambled at all since we’d gotten there. So, about 10:30 Tuesday night, Gena and I decided it was time for some serious casino quality time. We threw on our sweats and headed downstairs. She played blackjack all night and I split my time between blackjack and slots. I found a hot machine that paid me every time I went back to it. If I stayed there too long though, I’d start losing again. But, each time I started losing, I just headed back to blackjack, played a few hands, socialized and headed back to my machine to cash in. By 5:30 am I had paid for my trip and my new coat, so I headed up to bed a happy, happy girl! I think Gena was up a couple hundred dollars when she came up at 7 am.

Wednesday, was a crap day! Lots of reasons, but no excuses, I was stupid and gave back all the money I had won and then some. Gena, who was amazed by my luck at the slots the night before, decided to play those and stole all my luck *grin*. Ah well, win some, lose lots…

Thursday morning we were heading home. I had gotten 2 hours of sleep and Gena, probably 4 hours. Although exhausted, we made it to the airport in plenty of time for our flight. Oy, if we had known what was in store for us, we would have just kept sleeping.

We board our flight and I am ready to just close my eyes and sleep the whole way home, but we just sat there for 45 minutes. They explained there was a problem with the landing gear doors. They had thought it was fixed but apparently not, so they were going to de-plane us and fix it again. So, off we get. We sat around for an hour or two or three (it’s all a blur now and I forget) before we re-board the plane only to back up and pull right back in. Off we get, again. The flight to Tulsa was also delayed, so when we got back off the plane they all welcomed us back to Vegas. It was pretty funny.

8 1/2 hours later, our flight took over a flight going from Dallas ---> Vegas ---> Denver and Tulsa was getting our plane. See, the airlines policy was if you were there for over 8 hours (from scheduled departure time) then they had to comp a room and refund the price of the ticket and get you home the next day. Tulsa's plane was not fixable at that point; our plane was but they were waiting for a part to be flown in; there was no return flight waiting in Tulsa while there was one in OKC; so, they took all the Denver passengers off in Vegas so they could start the clock over. When we finally got off the plane in OKC, the people there waiting cheered for us. :)




Pickup lines of the week:

While Gena and I had lots of fun meeting new people all week, we did notice one thing. When you aren’t looking anymore, you really do get hit on more. Everyone was very respectful and only once did we feel uncomfortable and that was really no big deal.

The funniest pick up line of the week happened at the airport.
First, a little background: I sat next to a man and woman on the flight out. He had tried for 30 min to get his companion a margarita with little success. We chatted amicably throughout the flight and I thought nothing of it, as I am naturally friendly and have a tendency to chatter (like that is news to anyone). Fast forward to flight home…About 6 hours into our wait at the airport, they finally decided to pass out food vouchers, so I stood in line for Gena’s and I mine. The man who I had sat next to on the trip out was behind me in line. It went something like this…

Me: Hah, you thought getting your margarita on the flight out here took a long time.
You didn’t know it was going to take this long to get home, huh?

Steve: Ah, yeah. I didn’t. That wasn’t my margarita, I drink (insert drink here, I forget).

Me: Ah, yes, I forgot, your wife’s margarita then.

Steve: Oh, she’s not my wife. I mean, I’m not married. She is, but I’m not.

Me: Oh. Ok.

Steve: That’s why when I saw you get on the plane the other day, I was like “Woah!” And, then, when you sat next to me; and you were so nice. I was like “Yeah!”

Me: *blush* Ah, well, thanks.

Steve: And, then when you got off the plane, I thought I’d never see you again.

Me: *nervous laughter because I know where this is headed and I do not want to go there* And, here I am waiting in line for food vouchers with you.

Steve: And here you are.

Me: Uh, yep, here I am.

Steve: *leaning in closer* Ah, well, you know, if you want to, uh, ‘communicate’, you can just slip me your number. (‘communicate’ was said in such a way that I don’t think he really meant talking ;-p )

Me: *thinking, “oh chit, oh chit, oh chit”* Ah, thank you, that’s really nice, but I am happily married.

Steve: Alright, alright.


The sweetest pickup line happened at The Mirage on the slots. After talking with a very nice guy for about 20 minutes he asked me, “Is everyone in Oklahoma as nice as you?”

The drunkest pickup line happened at the concert. Gena was standing behind me because I had squeezed up as close as I could without leaving her completely behind so I didn’t see this start but the end was hysterical.

Drunk boy: I just have to tell you, you are the prettiest girl I’ve seen in Vegas.

Gena: Well, thank you.

At which point he starts mauling her. Ok, so he was just hugging her and kissing her repeatedly on the cheek… when he noticed a guy standing next to Gena watching him.

Drunk boy: Oh, DUDE! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hit on your woman!
Nice guy: Starts to run with it and tell the guy to bugger off but is interrupted by Gena saying: Oh, I’m not with him, I’m with her. (pointing at me, at which point I turn around)
Drunk boy: *with a very exaggerated double take because he was so drunk* WOAH! I didn’t see YOU when I told HER she was the prettiest girl in Vegas! (and grabs me for a big hug. Thank goodness I have a tendency to throw my head back when I laugh because I caught the kiss on my chin instead of the mouth. )

We all laughed and shooed him on his way because really, how many girls had he told that to that night and how many more before one fell for it. So, the nice guy (whom we had already been talking to because he was MUCH taller than me and helped me get some pics of Jack! above the crowd) tells us if we need to pretend to be with him, he would back us up and that he didn’t expect anything for it. We talked with him and his friend for a long time after the concert. They were great!


The hottest guy pickup line happened on the shuttle bus back to the hotel after the concert. Four very hip and good looking guys are the last ones on the bus with us and chatting amongst themselves. Gena and I were trying to place their accents when one of them asked me if there was a bin up front. At which point, I took his bottle and threw it away and said, “Ok, you said “bin” instead of trashcan, where are you from?”
Cute boy: What?
Me: you said bin instead of trashcan so you’re probably not from the states and I can’t place your accent.
Cute boy: Oh! Oh, you say trashcan here? Um, we’re from Australia.
*so we talked for awhile about the concert, Jack Johnson, and discussing where Oklahoma is – no, we don’t ride horses to work and we do enjoy indoor plumbing… *
So, he starts talking about where they are staying, where we are staying and asks us if we know of any parties. We say no and he asks if we would like to party with them… He did his best to get us to say yes, but we respectfully declined. Phew, were they cute!

Lamest pick up line of the week occurred while Gena was playing slots. A man comes up to her when she hits a jackpot and says, "Hey, I must be good luck! You hit that just as I walked by!" Nevermind that he had been walking back and forth behind her for the past 5 minutes...


Most "innocent" pick up line of the week and Gena fell for it! One of the guys she had played blackjack with all night offered to give her his phone number so she could call him if we were going to be gambling there the next night. She said, "Ok" and took out her cell phone to enter it, at which point he said, "Oh, well, why don't you give me your number too just in case." And she did! He did call the next night. AND, 2 weeks later at 1:30 am Saturday night LOL!

Tuesday Mornings Vegas part 3

Tuesday Mornings & Vegas part 3

Oy, I really don’t like Tuesday mornings. I never want to play WoW in the mornings except on Tuesdays. And Tuesdays are server maintenance day so I guess I only want to play because I can’t. There’s that always wanting what you can’t have thing I guess. So, I guess I’ll try to update this page on Tuesdays from now on. Raina, this means you need to pick a day to update too ;-p

Sooooo, anyway, back to the Vegas trip….


We stayed at The Mirage on the strip side. Had a nice view of the Venetian, which is Gena’s favorite place to stay ;) But, my favorite place to stay is whichever strip hotel has the best/cheapest deal, hence The Mirage this trip. It’s a nice hotel with a great location for people who like to shop (read Gena there). It’s within easy walking distance to the Forum Shops at Caesars and the Fashion Show Mall.

We spent ALL day shopping Tuesday & Wednesday. We tried on tons of clothes we couldn’t afford – a $4000 jacket at Dolce & Gabbana, some $600 Prada boots. Whatever. It’s insane to spend that much money on one item of clothing – even if you can afford it. We did buy a few things though… Gena: some new tennis shoes because her feet were killing her, a couple of pairs of shoes and boots, gifts for her hubby & kids; Me: a funky new coat, some kickin’ new boots, and some “tight” jeans because Gena made me and toys for Alyx.


I do think I drove Gena insane though because I am not really that much of a shopper and I certainly don't buy myself name brand clothes anymore. Hello, Walmart and Target are my best friends :) So, I had to "think" about every purchase over a certain dollar amount. And, as much as I grumbled that my old jeans were fine, I do have to grudgingly admit that the tighter ones really do look better - bleh! We did compromise on those though, I wasn't willing to go as tight as she thought I should. There's only so much I'm willing to sacrifice for fashion. Like breathing, sitting, breathing....

She was so frustrated by the time we were boot shopping all she would say was, "Well, you're going to do what you want no matter what I say, but if you don't get those boots... well.... do what you want." Not that I particularly needed her opinion on the boots. I love, love, love them! Even though they are a bit higher than what I'm normally willing to wear, they are SO comfortable!


The gay boys in the Guess store were hilarious! I had three of them helping me pick a coat and the conversation went something like this…
Gay boy #1: Oh Girl! That coat is THE one! If you wear that to the clubs, with a little red turtleneck and some kickin’ boots, you will be the hottest girl there!
Gay boy #2: Um hmm, and maybe some tighter jeans and you need to get the next smaller coat, that’s supposed to be worn skin tight. Then, it would be hot!
Gay boy #3: But she’s from Oklahoma, its cold there. She wouldn’t be able to wear anything warm under it.
Gay boy #2: Well sometimes you have to sacrifice comfort for fashion girlfriend.
Me: *laughing* Um, yeah, I’m a mom. What clubs do I get to go to? I just want to be the hottest mom in Walmart. Ok?
Gay boy #1 & 3: Oh Girl! You got that down already, and in that coat... well, there you go!

At which point I asked if they worked on commission. ;) Supposedly, no… Ah, well, it’s a great coat and *I* love it, so whatever…

Vegas Baby! - part 2 - Tattoooooos!

Here we are our first morning in Vegas. We weren't sure what we were going to do yet, but we were happy, happy to be there! The only thing we knew for sure was Gena wanted to eat lunch at Chinois.

So, naturally, our first destination had to be the Forum Shops at Caesar's. We did a little window shopping then headed down to Chinois only to find out they weren't open for lunch that day. Gena cried. Ok, not really, we just headed down to Spago instead. So, I had a really yummy chicken caesar salad. I would so have eaten that salad every day. That is, until I found out it was a twenty-two-freaking-dollars-salad. That's right, $22 for some iceberg lettuce and some chicken. I don't think so...

Anyway, Gena starts talking about getting tattoos. So, she says, "Our waitress has piercings, I bet she knows people who tattoo." And, of course, she did. She was great! She went in the back and asked everyone back there and they made us a list of where TO go and where NOT to go.

Gena had gotten her tattoo on her honeymoon. It had two cherubs on it that look so much like her daughters (which she had years after the tattoo btw - crazy!). She wanted to add their names over the cherubs. I'm kinda trying to blow it off, because I had gotten my tattoo about 13 years ago during my "wild days", from a homemade gun and it hurt SO BAD! It was made from a door bell motor with a single needle that went too deep and moved to slow. That thing was like a jackhammer on my shoulder for 4 hours and we didn't even finish it. No way was I going through that pain again, I would just continue to never show my back in public ;) .

But, once Gena gets an idea in her head there is no stopping her. So, naturally, we end up at Studio21 { www.studio21tattoo.com } Tattoo Gallery. She got hers done first and it looked great. Our artist, Aaron, was amazing (that's us with Aaron in the pic). He was so nice and so talented!

Aaron looked at my old tattoo and told me it was actually really good for a homemade tat. He volunteered to re-draw it over the old one so I could look at it and decide if I wanted to do it or not. Of course, the re-draw was so great I had to do it but I was terrified! I told him all about the original experience and he assured me this would be nothing like that. And, he was right! It only hurt a couple of times and even that wasn't bad. The only time it really hurt was when he added color and the white highlight. That only hurt because he was going back over areas that were already sensitive. And, it only took 45 minutes and looked amazing!

Bet you want to see the pics now, huh...

Tattoo Pics

VEGAS BABY - part 1 - Jack Johnson!

My oldest and dearest friend – oldest as in I’ve known her so dang long not that SHE is old – and I had been talking about going to Vegas for a little girl time. We couldn’t decide when to go so thought we should check out what concerts/shows/etc would be there so we could plan appropriately. Well, Wednesday morning I wake up early and decide to check Jack Johnson’s site to see if he would be there any time soon. Holy Crap! He was going to be there on Sunday at Vegoose!

OMG! OMG! OMG! I nearly cried thinking there was no possible way to make it. I called Anthony and whined. I texted friends and whined. Little did I know, all I had to do was put Gena on the case and she would make it happen! She found us $96 roundtrip tickets and a great hotel deal. This last minute trip would actually cost us $200 less each than if we planned it in advance! That was it. Of course, we booked it!

So, fastforward to Sunday night. We arrived in Vegas at 5:05 pm. Jack was scheduled to be on stage at 6:45. Eeeek! So, we raced to the hotel, checked in and attempted to catch a cab to the Sam Boyd Stadium. The first driver drove off with our hands on the handle when he found out where we were going! Luckily, the valet at the Mirage said, “Alright, just get in and I’ll tell him where you’re going after you’re in.” We did and our driver groaned when he realized he couldn’t do anything about it. When asked if we were going to be able to get a cab back after the concert he just laughed. Yikes! He then proceeded to horrify us with tales of people waiting for hours the night before for cabs; wouldn’t be able to call a cab because they wouldn’t come and even if they did, how would they find us?; blah; blah; blah…

As we were really only going to concert for me – Gena really didn’t care either way and she was giving me that, "what have you gotten me into" look – I almost chickened out. We didn’t even have tickets and didn't know if we would even be able to still buy them that late. But, I decided the whole reason we were there, at that moment, was so I could see Jack in the flesh! So, to hell with playing it safe. I was going to see Jack if I had to walk back to the strip, 20 miles, uphill, in the snow, ya know... So, anyway, we went.

When we got there we just followed the crowd. Which, of course took us to the wrong entrance. It was the re-admittance entrance and when asked for our ticket stubs, we told them we needed to buy them. The man just looked at us like we were crazy and waved us in! Oh yeah!! We had made it to the concert, got in free (price was $130/2 day ticket btw!) – ah, life is good. We were half way to the stage when Jack started playing. It was amazing!!! I just can't say enough how much I love him :) As you can see from this pic Gena took of me half way through the show, I was a very happy girl! I even got to torture a few Jack fan friends back home by texting/mailing pics/calling them during the show. It was great! Let me tell you, I was walking on air the rest of the night!

But, enough of my yammering... I'm sure you would rather see the pics from the show! so, here's a link: Jack! Btw, that is an afro wig Jack is wearing. I also have some video snippets from the show that I'll post as soon as I figure out how...


Tomorrow, I'll try to get our tattoo pics up too!

blah, blah, blog

Oy! Why am I doing this? But, more importantly, why are you reading it?

Ah well, atleast now I can say I have blogged.