I hate Grasshoppers!

I have large beds of Canna Lillies all around my house front and back, which usually put on quite the display all summer long.

The past few weeks they have been growing happily away and I have been terribly busy with work, home and visitors. So I had failed to really look at my canna's closely, until last week when I noticed the first blooms just never really happened at all. One day they were all standing proud, the next they looked 3 weeks old!!

So Thursday night I investigated more closely and found the 'Attack of the killer grasshoppers' had hit them with force. As I chopped away at the stripped flowerheads and ravaged leaves it was literally raining grasshoppers in all directions of all sizes. Two years ago I would have been seriously freaking out and shrieking, but now I am becoming a true Okie, I just got mad! So I got them tidied up and then sprayed them with 'Seven' and bingo the problem has disappeared.

So I am hoping to soon have my canna's back to their former glory, as pictured here two summers ago. Grasshoppers are now enemy #2 here, right behind snakes (thanks Michelle)!

Handbag of the day....Cal-Jo!

Just guarding your handbags from pamokc mum! ;-)

Fun Weekend

We had a fun weekend with pamokc and her lovely Brit' hubby. Apart from all the 4th July fun and fireworks at the lake on Friday, we also visited a local Windmill Museum and ate out on Saturday. Although finding a restaurant that was open out here this weekend proved to be more of a challenge than we had anticipated. However happily we managed not to starve all weekend, in fact gourmet eating and drinking were very much on the menu!

Windmills have been donated from all over the USA to this little museum and they also have an authentic Sod House, all set out as it would have been inside. Here's my mum emerging from the relative cool of the interior. It has been raging heat here all weekend and we have made it well over 100 degrees everyday!

The little prairie house shown above is also on the site and is furnished as it would have been originally and home to the little baby Barn Swallows.

Last night we were all pretty weary from the late night Friday and high heat, so we 'vegged' out in front of the TV with 'I now pronounce you Chuck & Larry', probably the funniest film the Hubster and I have seen in a few years.

Today was the Formula One British Grand Prix and one of the main reasons we got together this weekend. It was a great race, with rain and alot of drama but it ended our weekend perfectly with a win for our Brit' Wonder Boy - Lewis Hamilton :-)

It's great when you make new internet friends and even better when you discover you get on so well, you can live with them for a few days comfortably. The last time that happened to me I married him!

Brit' Word of the Day....

Today's BWOTD is a common phrase in the UK and bemuses Americans!

"I am just going to spend a penny"

'Spend a penny' = have a pee!

We found out today that despite being married to a Brit' for many years pamokc did not know this one!

My mum once caused much confusion with some very good friends of ours here, when she told them she got up around 2am to spend a penny. They told us they had a whole conversation afterwards about what she could possibly 'spend a penny' on at 2am in the morning where we live! :-) They finally had to ask me as it was intriguing them so much.

This originates from when you had to pay a penny to use a public toilet in the UK, which I remember, so it must have gone on well into the 1970's.

Barn Swallow Babies

Blog Buddies Weekend

This weekend we have pamokc and her Brit' hubby John staying with us, as well as my mum. So the Brit's are outnumbering the Americans 3 to 2 in our home!

They arrived around noon and are here through to Sunday afternoon. They came out to visit and do a smalltown 4th July, combined with the F1 British Grand Prix, of which we are all big fans.

So today we had the traditional cookout, followed by hours of chat and then off to our towns big firework display on our Artesian lake. It was all very 'country' with lots of people in the back of Pickups, a video presentation honoring our hometown troops in Iraq, great patriotic music and then the fireworks. We sat in our chairs at the edge of the lake and just soaked up the wonderful atmosphere and the beautiful evening we were blessed with.

After the official display everyone else set theirs off, then we watched our neighbours display and ended the night on the patio snacking on French Brie cheese and Brownies!

It's been a fun day in great company. Tomorrow we are up early for the F1 qualifying and then off to see local sites, before the neighbouring towns fireworks at night.

This was also my mums first 4th July and she has loved every minute of the day and all the friendship, patriotism and fireworks.

4th July - a day to celebrate?

One of the funniest things I have been asked regularly since I moved here is "So do you celebrate Independence Day in England too?". Well actually no we don't make a big deal of the day you guys decided you no longer wanted to be associated with us Imperialist, snooty Brit's!

Ok so I have my tongue firmly in cheek at this point and have often been tempted to wander out in my British flag shirt on this date, but I have refrained - so far! :-)

Here are a few of my thoughts on why we should all be grateful today that you did 'go your own way'. And also a few things you might have been enjoying now had you not gained your independence.

The Pro's - or what you have that we don't:

• You have far more room here than we do!


• You guys have NASA and get to send cool rockets into space


• You are far more gungho than we are and applaud winners


• You can enjoy Dairy Queen Moolattes


• Brad Pitt! ;-)


• You can wear cowboy hats in public without people assuming you're either on a 'bridal hen night' or gay!


• You did share with us Westerns, Clint Eastwood, John Wayne, Rodeo's, Cowboys - oh and Elvis for good measure


• You have cheerleaders!


• We can all enjoy Hollywood blockbusters


• Walt Disney and some magical childhood memories


• Less hours of your life wasted in traffic - seriously even in the cities like NYC, it's not as bad as London


• Doris Day! :-)


• The best BBQ sauce choices


• You are far more patriotic than us


• You have some amazing scenery and natural wonders


• Cheap gas and housing - I am serious!


• You don't have WAGS (Wives And Girlfriends of Soccer players with no sense)


• Mexican food

The Con's or what you're missing out on:

• You have seriously missed out on decent sausages and bacon


• You could all be talking with a 'cool' British accent! ;-)


• Decent beer


• You could all drive 10mph faster at least - legally


• You'd have a Royal Family and all the pomp that brings


• You could be playing the 'BIG' sports the rest of the world plays like soccer and rugby, and no doubt whipping us all!


• You could be eating Asian Indian Curry


• Claiming Posh Spice as one of your own! ;-)


• The strength of the British Pound


• Fish and Chips


• Ant' & Dec' - although I hear they're coming soon :-)


• Affordable German cars and appliances


• Decent tea and make that 'hot' too!


• We did share with you Cary Grant and The Beatles though!

Actually I think we all did pretty well out of the deal and at least we came out of all the shenigans as best buddies internationally.

Happy 4th July y'all!

Brit' Word of the Day....GUESS?

Carrying on the BWOTD Cockney Rhyming Slang week, I thought I'd let you have a guess at this one:

"Mutt 'n Jeff" = ??

Handbag of the day....is a lamp!

How cute is this handbag lamp my mum bought for me in the UK!

It has pride of place in our dining room now, is just adorable and even tones with the colour scheme in there :-)

HaPpY BiRtHdAy HuBsTeR!

And here we are celebrating in 2006, the year we respectively hit the big 40 and 50! You'll be pleased to hear he is continuing to mature with age like a good wine, so who knows what this year might bring.

Happy Birthday sweetheart :-)

Brit' Word of the Day....

Today's BWOTD is some cockney rhyming slang to throw my many 'tea loving' readers out there:

"That boy has always been a right tea-leaf"

'Tea-leaf' = Thief

I am not 100% certain, but I actually think this phrase features in the script of the movie 'Oliver Twist' about one of the young pickpockets.

Completed bathroom renovation

I promised you more pictures of our finished bathroom work and so here they are. Just to recap we have pretty much redone or replaced everything except the floor, ceiling and bath! I guess the biggest task was scraping off loose paint and then mudding, texturising and painting all the walls.

This is looking out of the bathroom to the hallway; here you can really see the work we did on the walls (we were both first-timers at mudding), one of the two new ceiling lights and also the new hooks.

This is looking into the main open area, with the 'comfort' height toilet we replaced in 2006 because I was sick of sitting on such a low loo! Can anyone tell me why you have such low toilets here, after all it's not like you are any shorter than Europeans?!? This also shows the new tile decals that now go around the room.

Here is the 'piece de resistance' of our work; a new sink, countertop, faucet, vanity door handles, matching towel rail and ring, and the tile decals. The lights and large mirror were already there, although I have previously resprayed the light units.

We both loved the slightly art deco feel of this Kohler sink.

I found these amazing self-adhesive, removable 3D tile decals online. They are heat, water and humidity resistant and each pack has four individual designs. If like us you do not want to mess with replacing perfectly good but boring tiles, they are the just the job. My mum and a friend cannot believe how they look and feel just like a real tile! You can find these and many others through this online supplier, who also gives wonderful service too.

On the other side to the sink area is the bath/shower, here you can see the curtain which I already had up, the tile decoration, the new storage shelving and new curved shower curtain rail. We had seen these in motels and thought they were great at giving you more elbow room in the shower, we would highly recommend changing to one of these. I wondered if the curtain would hang further out from the bath, but it doesn't at all!

I found these individual solid brass with chrome bonded on storage trays on Amazon and loved their simple design.

A shot of the bath opened up showing everything together.This was the worst area for the peeling paint problem we had and it is just totally transformed by the wall treatment.

The finishing touch we needed was a big picture above the toilet and we found the perfect thing in Garden Ridge yesterday. It looks like a big window and the colours are exactly right, in the top left 4 squares where it shows some red, that's actually a square of silver leaf foil reflecting. But the coolest part is the walls in the picture on either side are textured and painted just like our actual walls!

We love our new bathroom and even more so because it was all our own hard work and design. Right now we feel like we are in some plush hotel everytime we go in there :-)

Mum got here safely

Excuse the quick post but it's 12:30am here and I am knackered as we Brit's like to say! All of mum's (Diana) flights were early and she got into OKC at 8:00pm safely and initially wide awake.

That didn't last long though; after a restorative hot chocolate and McDonalds fries, she slept most of the almost 3 hour drive home. She is now tucked up safely in bed and I'm certain will sleep soundly, it's great to have here here :-)

We also had a long day as we were up by 7am and got back just before midnight. Never made it to the museum, as we ended up just getting all the shopping done that we needed. I will give a more full report tomorrow and thanks for all your messages today.

Oh and thank you Daryl for another blog award that was entirely unexpected, but a lovely surprise when I made it home! I will give it some thought and pass it on next week sometime when things have settled down a little here.

Night all, I am having a lie-in tomorrow, so will post later on :-)

Brit' Word of the Day....

Today's BWOTD is a bit more cockney rhyming slang which means a new word as well! So today you get a twofer:

"I'm a bit Bernie Flint after all the home renovations"

'Bernie Flint' = Skint = Broke

'Skint' the word is a word used daily all over the UK and I had no idea you didn't know it until I asked the Hubster as I wrote this.

It's off to the city we go...

Well we are off to OKC today, planning on getting there around noon as we have a few places we need to go. Lowes for a few light fittings, the Health Food Centre to stock up, Canterbury's a British food store for my PG Tips tea, Garden Ridge for a picture for the bathroom and fun, Cracker Barrel to eat and they usually have adorable t-shirts and anywhere else that takes our fancy.

We are also going to head downtown to the OKC Art Museum to see the exhibition 'Roman Art from the Louvre', which is on it's third and final stop in the USA. As you know I love all things Italian and I love art, so I am really looking forward to this.

My mum's plane doesn't land until just after 8:05pm and that assumes no delay which is a rare thing these days. So we won't get home probably until close to midnight, it's always a long day.

I will have my laptop with me though and will try to blog later on how the day is going, if nothing else there is wireless at the airport if she is delayed! Later :-)

Brit' Word of the Day....

Today's BWOTD continues the cockney rhyming slang feature:

"She got herself into a right two 'n' eight about it"

'Two 'n' Eight' = State

This is one I use alot myself and has always really tickled me!