It's still raining!

Yep the rain is still on the plains of Okieland, in fact we didn't go to the rodeo tonight partly because of it. But we were also all too tired and just decided to stay dry at home.

It's great to have rain here in July and very unusual to have this much, but the problem is it gets into the high 90's inbetween and so it ends up very humid. I felt like I was walking through water most of today my legs were so tired, and my mum was also suffering with the heat index and humidity.

This afternoon we both ended up going to bed to sleep for a few hours and the whole time it rained! As I write this it's still coming down and yet from tomorrow we are predicted to be heading into a week of temperatures over 100's most days.

Crazy weather but great for the water bill!

Cattle, Cowboys & Cops!

The big event of the day was the Longhorn Cattle Drive to celebrate the start of the 78th Woodward Elks Rodeo, which runs for the rest of this week.

This is a huge tradition in the area and these beautiful Longhorn Cattle live on a ranch a few miles out of town. We believe they are the largest remaining herd in the USA and their owner Wes Sanders (that's him in the pink above) travels all over the country with them. But their home rodeo is this one and they always play a big part in the weeks events, starting with the drive in from the ranch, down Main Street and out to the rodeo arena.

Driving cattle is an unpredictable business so we had quite a wait in the heat of the day, but it was SO WORTH IT! Both my mum and I were just in utter awe of this huge spectacle, the beauty of the animals and the whole Wild West feel of it all.

Not only were the Longhorn Cattle stunning to look at, but incredibly docile and well-behaved as they moved within touching distance.

But we also had 'real' cowboys thrown in trotting alongside the Cop cars for good measure, whip cracking skills (see below) and all. Plus alot of other outriders and some beautiful horses and cowboy attire to admire.

We also got quite a kick out of this mom on her cellphone and then texting, technology is truly everywhere, and with her own special little cowboy on his pony! Get a load of his cute little red chaps and cowboy hat.

We have tickets to the rodeo on Friday night and this will be my mum's first rodeo experience and after today she can't wait. I have loved rodeo's since the first time I visited here and got to go to one, they are just as good as you have ever imagined they would be from 'across the pond'.

Personally I think this beauty above is the 'Heidi Klum' of the Longhorn world and a real 'supermodel'! Even the Hubster was mightily impressed by this stunning specimen!

I am really delighted my mum was here to experience today and will also get to see the big show later in the week. Today was a stunning and rare photo opportunity, so if you would like to see more then pop over to my photography blog here for more pictures.

And finally here's a cute baby for you all to oooh and argh over ;-)

First event of the day out here!

Well it was quite a day in our little corner of north west Okieland, with a couple of events taking place. The first was the 'Run for the Fallen' coming through our area, this is what it says at their website about this wonderful tribute to our fallen heroes:

ONE MILE FOR EVERY SERVICE MEMBER KILLED
IN OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM.

Beginning Flag Day, June 14, 2008, a dedicated team of runners will run across America from Fort Irwin, CA to Arlington National Cemetery, one mile for every Soldier, Sailor, Airmen, and Marine killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom. For ten weeks, team members will mark each mile with an American flag and signcard in an apolitical reflection of remembrance of each service member.

We were lucky enough to meet the founder and director Jon Bellona on the side of Highway 15. He started the run to honour his bestfriend who was killed in service out there. We shook his hand, had a chat as he was rather surprised to be accosted by two British women out here and then he posed for the picture, which also includes our local friendly Highway Patrol man, James.

Jon had been stopping every mile to place a little American Flag with a fallen soldiers name on it at the side of the road in tribute, and then also running in the overpowering heat. You can read all about their run here, see if they are coming to your area and also find the list of soldiers they run for on each individual day.

It was an honour to meet Jon and it's a wonderful tribute.

Bowling, Mexican, Movie

Well we had a slight change of plans today, due to the movie theatre changing their schedule! So instead of heading into Texas we ended up going into our local town and my mum got to do something she has never done before - 10 Pin Bowling!

Once we had chosen her a suitable ball and shown her the basics of the game, she was away and scored very close to me consistently - not that it's hard to keep up with me.

We had fun, although it appears the lack of talent for bowling in our family is hereditary, as neither of us got out of the 50's! I don't think we're in any danger of being headhunted for the league anytime soon.

Even the Hubster was not on his usual good form today, but it made a pleasant change not to get an ass whooping for once! This didn't stop him taking his technique very seriously though and the level of concentration involved was intense!

After three games we headed off to eat Mexican and then followed this up with 'Hancock', which we all enjoyed.

It rained AGAIN today, in fact we had a 20 degree temperature drop from morning to afternoon. Very pleasant but also very bizarre for Oklahoma in July!

Enjoyable day

We had a really nice day yesterday. They were cleaning the carpets at work, so I was kicked out for the day and it gave us time to have some fun with friends.

We went out for lunch with three friends of mine that my mum also knows really well. We had a delicious and sociable lunch, followed by a little shopping. Then we went off to our local artesian outdoor pool for a swim. It was a hot, cloudy and windy day and this pool is huge with a sand bottom, so very like swimming in the sea. I took my camera intending to post pictures but the battery was dead, so next week sometime!

Then this evening we went around to the home of some close friends for dinner, which was once again very relaxed and delicious. I took the picture above of my mum enjoying the ambience.

Tomorrow we are off to Canadian in Texas, that cute town with the old refurbished 1950's movie theatre I have featured here before. We will trawl the antique shops there, eat at "The Cattleman's Exchange' and then go to the theatre to see 'Hancock'.

What are you up to this weekend?

Roy - 89 years young....

...and still willing and able to help a damsel in distress!

Traditional pursuits for mum!

Yesterday we went along to visit my hand quilting group in the next town. This is my mum's fourth visit here, so she knows this group very well and has been before. But she always enjoys their traditional work, camaradary and catching up on their lives. My mum brought them traditional English Shortbread to have at snack time, which was very well received.

When I first arrived here, these older ladies were amongst the first to welcome me into this area with open arms and they have all become my good friends. They also taught me to hand quilt and they meet every Thursday for a day of fun and quilting. Since I have been working and am now full-time I can rarely go and it was so nice to spend time with them today.

This is where you learn all the really important local news and gossip, hear the best jokes and discuss some things that would definitely surprise you! I have also learned so much about the history of this area from them, but more than anything they are great fun and I am very fond of them all.

Yesterday one of the ladies needed a work top taken in and so she just bought it along for some help. In no time Anita had it pinned to fit and then my mum (in pink) and Peggy took over and did the sewing part for her. As my 'substitute' Grandma Irma commented (she is the closest lady to the camera on the left in the first picture) - this is how it was in the old days, all the women helping each other.

The ladies finally finished hand quilting this antique quilt today, it has taken them 4 months of hard work and it is now a thing of great beauty. The fabric in this was hand pieced by the owners mother from old sugar sacks!

Oh memory where art thou!?

One of the things I have found really hard since arriving here nearly 3 years ago, is remembering all the people I meet daily. Just imagine for one moment if you moved to another place tomorrow and literally everyone you met all day long for months was new to you!

You know there's this wonderful theory that making up a little rhyme, or linking someones name with a bizarre fact to remember them is really supposed to help. Well that's just fine and dandy when you're not faced with numerous new introductions on a daily basis for at least a year!

It's easy making friends if you have a Hubster who knows just about everyone in a 50 mile radius. It's not so great trying to remember who the heck they are the next time you bump into them on your own.

If you were to ask the Hubster what's the thing Sarah has asked you the most since she got here, he would definitely say without hesitation - "Who was that?"

It still happens a few times a week and you wouldn't believe how many times I have met someone and carried on a whole conversation without a clue who they are! In fact I think I have developed a whole new set of skills doing just this.

It can be very frustrating and it's not unusual for the Hubster to get a call from me that will go something like this:

"Hi, it's me"

"Hi, everything ok?"

"Yep but I just met a woman I know I know, but I can't remember who she is"

"What did she look like?"

"Oh she was blonde, about 50, slim/plump/tall/short (etc), distinguishing features if any? I think I may have met her at such and such place but I'm not sure"

" Was she with anyone, what was she driving?"

"Oh I can't remember but I just know we've met her somewhere before?"

"Was it so and so?"

"No, oh you know who I mean, we met her with that guy you used to work with - I think?"

And on and on we go, rarely coming up with the answer until the next time we bump into the person, when they then turn out to be someone totally different to who I thought it was!

Or the other conversation we have a few times a week is the Hubster saying to me:

"You remember you met them a few weeks ago as we were leaving Walmart and we stopped to chat for a few minutes and they were asking you about England"

"Uhhh, no I don't think I remember that, are you sure?"

"YES!"

He then will follow this up with yet more details of a meeting I have no memory of and he will get very frustrated at times. I try to explain how incredibly difficult it is to remember all these new people, but I guess until you've lived it yourself it's hard to really get it!

Oh and then I decided to be a substitute teacher in four different local schools and utter chaos ensued in my head! Soon I will be deluged with parents and kids on August 14 when school returns and I am the secretary. Of course living in a small place and being British, the word got out within days that I got the job and everyone I meet will know who I am, even if I have never met them before! So everyday at work, I spend 15 minutes studying the class rosters and remembering their little faces - it's a bit like swotting for exams!

In all honesty there have been times and events in the past 3 years when I am surprised my brain has not had a mini meltdown. In fact interestingly I tend to forget more now than I ever did before (lists are my friends), and I have a theory that's because I am permanently on memory overload!

And don't even get me started on the new thing stressing me at work. Recognising the other staff members voices on the phone, because they rarely say who it is and I don't want to be rude, insulting or look stupid!

So if you live near me and I ever walk straight past you, or give you a blank look when you greet me, please don't hold it against me. If I answer the phone to you and have to ask you who it is calling, please don't be insulted.

I'm memorable to everyone I meet as I am uniquely British (and even if they haven't met me they often know who I am), but it's totally different from my befuddled side of the fence!

Only in Oklahoma!

A week ago Sunday our town and two other local towns lost all their power for a couple of hours in the afternoon. It was quite bizarre, a perfect summers day, no wind (unusually) and no storms in the area at all. None of us could understand what had could have caused the power failure.

Later we heard that a trampoline had got into overhead power lines and caught fire, causing the massive outage! As it was a calm day we assumed it was kids messing around.

Well today I got the local paper and discovered what actually happened, and trust me you couldn't make this up. Apparently an isolated 'whirlwind' just happened to drop into the garden that had a trampoline, picked it up and threw it into the power lines!

As the Hubster commented, the chances of that happening were little or none, now they're just 'little'! Only in Oklahoma my friends :-)

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)!

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!

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.

Busy Saturday!

Our day will be starting early with the qualifying at 7am for the F1 French Grand Prix from Magny Cours, where we'll be hoping for a better weekend for Lewis Hamilton!

Then we are finally going to get around to 'mudding' our main bathroom with wall compound. The Hubster will be applying and I will follow on behind him designing, right now I have no clue what style that will take! Our bathroom has a bit of a beach/sea theme going on and I am considering placing the odd shell into the compound as it sets, as a little feature.

Finally we are off to a community Gospel sing and Hamburger feed hosted by our church in the next town. The Hubster plays lead guitar and is one of the singers in our church band, so he will be busy helping provide the entertainment.

Only 11 days and counting now until my mum arrives here, so we have a busy week ahead preparing.

All partied out...

Well I hope you will excuse my limited blogging today, but we went out for dinner at 6pm with a couple of our closest friends and we got home at 10:30pm.

I had a lovely evening in great company, with good food, a lovely gift and had 'Happy Birthday' sung to me in the restaurant and a candle stuck in my banana pudding.

Then we went back to our friends home and visited all evening, well actually Judy and I shopped on Endless.com and our Hubsters went to visit the local discount Ammo' dealer! Along the way I got bit by a mosquito on my forehead, so by tomorrow I might resemble the Elephant Man. Judy saw it there and instead of slapping it off immediately (because she was worried I'd slap her back!), politely warned me instead - so it's all her fault ;-)

Just a typical fun night in Okieland where we really know how to push the boat out! :-)

Small Town High Drama!

About 10:15 pm we heard sirens and looked out of the window, only to see a huge house fire 4 blocks and across the highway from us! So as you do in a small town, we jumped in the Pickup to go gawk and get to visit with the rest of the 400 townsfolk out there! The photo will enlarge for more detail if you click on it.

No kidding, I haven't seen our little town this busy that late at night ever! Anyway it was a 2 storey house that's been vacant 30 yrs at least, so no real harm done. In fact it was an eyesore, so apart from the fact our rural volunteer Fire Dept's could do without it, it cleaned up an abandoned lot.

However as you can see from the picture, the occupied home next door was just a little too close for comfort. I am pleased to report though the 3 local Fire Dept's had it almost out by 11pm but it was a spectacular show for awhile there. We are all very glad for the 4" of rain we have had in the last week though and that the wind had dropped this evening. A month ago we might have lost the whole block, the rest of which is occupied.

So much for our early night!

Lovely Wedding

Our friends Donna & Bob tied the knot yesterday at Roman Nose State Park in Watonga and it was a beautiful wedding. Although they followed the traditional vows, they both made a short speech to each other that spoke volumes about their love....myself and most of the woman were teary eyed!

Donna's three nieces also sang 'Bless the Broken Road' and were wonderful, their mom was wiping her eyes desperately all the way through. The whole wedding was filled with emotion, love and laughs, which is always the best kind. Bob's son had made a wonderful video of their seperate lives before they met and then of their 4 year relationship which was touching and funny.

Although they have found true love a little later in life, I felt in many ways this made it all the more profound. I have no doubt they will be happy for the rest of their lives and they'll be much laughter in their marriage as they are both fun people; indeed they are off to Disneyworld for part of their honeymoon :-)

We wish them nothing but happiness and joy together.

Oh and here we are, still loved up 2.5 yrs into marriage ;-)

We're off to a wedding

Always a fun thing to do and this happens to be one of my good female friends I have made since arriving here.

This is her first marriage and we are of similar age, and she seems to have met the perfect guy for her and I know they will be very happy together for years to come. It's being held in the lodge of a State Park at 6pm and it's a lovely day here already. After the wedding there will be a dinner and then dancing and I love to dance :-)

So I am off to paint my fingernails, iron our outfits and shine up my dancing shoes!

Teresa - just for you here is my outfit; pretty chiffony shirt from CC, matt silver cotton pants from Gap, new sandals from Endless.com and finally a purse you have not seen yet! 'Sparkle' bought many years ago from Accessorize.

I am going with cool, comfy and pastel shades with silver accessories.

My Bugs on 'speed' point illustrated!

So as I was catching up on my blogging buddies I hear an ominous buzzing above my head, look up and see this monster! I think it's a wasp but hell it's so darned big and disjointed, I wasn't at all sure?

Anyway off I run to get my trusty and extremely old bug catcher as the Hubster is asleep and after a bit of jigging around I get him, photograph him and then release him outside. This is such a clever contraption, as being clear they don't see it coming and then you just slide the trapdoor shut on them and remove to the outside.

I have never seen another one again and will be doing everything I can to keep this one in active service living here! But that was a big ol' thingummyjig!

Tornado near Fort Supply Oklahoma.

This is film of the tornado that came out of the storm that crossed us Friday night and then produced this tornado 25 miles away.

It sadly destroyed three homes, two from one family and we know the owner of one of them. Luckily nobody was home except Emitt the dog and they found him uninjured. But the family from the other were trapped in their basement and had to be dug out, all okay though. The film-makers think it's "cool", I used to think that too until I moved here and have a home, family and friends I cherish!