Visit with Mark and Angela

I was in Tulsa for a class reunion and the best part of the visit was the time I got to spend with my brother Mark and his wife Angela.

 Mark and Angela by a statue they had made out of sheet metal of an Indian shooting an arrow into the sky.  Mark made the design himself by copying a statue and then making an outline.

 They have a beautiful home in Tulsa on a hill by Gilcrease museum.

 The house is all made out of native limestone and it's really nice.

 They have a deer feeder in the backyard and it shoots out corn twice a day.  Here's some deer with their fawns.  This picture was taken right out the back window of their dining room.

 A large buck with big antlers.

 A scorpion we found in the house one day.

 This is my old house that I lived in during High School.

 The house I lived in before that when I was in Junior High and the later half of elementary school..

 I went on a couple of walks, one day on my own and another day with Mark and Angela.  This is a bike trail through town.

 A shot from the Riverside Walk along the Arkansas River.

 Tulsa is an oil town.  The refineries are across the river.  Notice the burning flame on that one tower.

 I was fascinated with these wood carved statues.

 They were in the Utica Square shopping center, which is by the second house in the previous pictures.  Mark and I used to ride our Stingray bikes to Utica Square with friends and hang out and play there quite a bit.  The security guard would chase us out of this one department store any time he saw us coming.  I guess he didn't like all the bikes parked at the front door or us running up and down the escalators the wrong way.

 The statues are incredibly detained and smooth and not at all rough like some of the chainsaw statues I see in Washington of bears and eagles and other animals.

 Really nice I thought.

 We ate dinner one night at Jamil's, a favorite steakhouse that we've been going to with our family since we were children.

Also had to make a stop at Braum's.  They are the best for ice cream sundaes.  I had a great visit with Mark and Angela.

Andrew's Birthday

Andrew had a birthday party.  It was at his other grandparents house (Inman's) in Graham.  He had both sets of grandparents and a great grandparent there, besides his own family.

 Andrew got to pick the meal.  He had hamburgers and french fries and pop.

 Little sister there to celebrate with Andrew.

 Andrew opening presents.  We got him a shirt and a book.

Andrew made his own birthday cake.  It was great.  I really liked it.  Happy birthday Andrew, we love you.

Penelope's Birthday

We went to Penelope's birthday party over at Doranda's house.  Talitha and David came too.

 She is four years old.  This is her birthday cake which looks like a giant cupcake.  It was cool looking.

 Penelope opening birthday presents.  We got her a treasure chest box.

 All four children at the table.  Tucker, Scarlett, Leon, and Penelope.

 Penelope got to pick the dinner menu.  We had pancakes with frosting and sprinkles.

 Look how big Leon's getting.  They grow so fast when they're babies.

Happy Birthday Penelope.  Grandpa and Grandma love you.

Dad is 90 years old

We went down to Arizona to be with our Dads on their birthdays.  Jacquelyn went down a week earlier than me and got to be with her Dad on his 86th birthday.  My Dad was turning 90.

 Here's Dad at 90.  He's doing great and I think he had a good time on his birthday.

 Dad and Mom with their two sons - Mark and I.

For a birthday present we had this tree planted in Leisure World in honor of Dad's 90th birthday.  It looked good, larger than I expected, and he was really surprised and liked it a lot.  The tree is across the street from Rec Center 2 and just past the driving range.  You can see it from the road or the golf course.  The tree was from Mark and I, Angela and Jacquelyn (even though they got left off the card), and from the grandchildren (who were mentioned on the card).  I think he was pleased it was from everyone.

Mark made him a $25,000 Birthday cake.  It was a recipe from a cooking contest where the winner got $25,000 as a prize.  Mom used to make it for him for his birthday every year.  It had pecans and lots of chocolate in it.

For dinner we went out to the Texas Roadhouse, their favorite restaurant.

 Dad and Mom at the restaurant.

Besides Jacquelyn and I, Mark and Angela were there.  And Kristen came also who flew back from a business trip in Japan.

We had an extra guest with us at the restaurant, little Elijah, who is Conni's grandson.  She had to take her other grandson to the emergency room (Eric was sick but was okay) so we watched Elijah.  Anyway, Elijah ran away at the restaurant and no one could find him anywhere.  We searched the restaurant and the parking lot.  He was setting in a corner booth by himself pouring salt on the table and playing in the salt.

After the meal they sang happy birthday to Dad and he got to ride the saddle and got a free chocolate sundae.

 Here's a picture of Conni with Eric, one of her two grandson's that's living with her.

 A better closeup of Eric, who is 18 months.

Here's Elijah again.  They call him Eli for short.  He's a big 2 1/2  year old and is at the 97th percentile in weight for his age and height.

Popcorn Ceiling

I spent my day off today removing the popcorn ceiling from our bedroom.  Jacquelyn really wanted it done and I didn't have much else to do I guess.

 This is a before picture.  As you can see we had that old popcorn type ceiling.

 Here's a close-up of the offending popcorn.  It doesn't look to bad here but we had several spots where it got ruined when our roof was leaking.

 First step was to take everything out of the room.  Everything.  This was no easy task.  It took forever.  Besides taking out the bed and furniture it involved a lot of cleaning and sorting and putting things away.

 Next step was to cover the walls with plastic.

 Then I had to cover the ceiling fan and carpet with plastic too.  Our room is large and has approximately 267 square foot.

 Ready to go, I have my eye goggles, respirator, spray bottle, and scrapper.  Since our house was built prior to 1980 we might have asbestos in the ceiling, which is very bad to breathe or get in your eyes.

 Here's one corner of the room done.  It was slow going and very messy.

The finished product.  All done.  Painting the new ceiling will have to wait until Jacquelyn gets home and picks out what she wants.

Andrew and Mallory

Andrew and Mallory stayed the night for a sleep over.

 First we had pizza and watched a movie we got from Redbox.

 Then we went on a flashlight walk around the block.

 Scary shadow monsters.

 The next morning we had chocolate chip pancakes with chocolate syrup and whipped cream.

 Then we walked to Wal-Mart to take the Redbox movie back.  This is the trail that goes behind Pierce.

We stopped at Bradley Lake along the way and the kids climbed on a tree.  I think they had a good time.