Wordless Wednesday - Squeaky Clean

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Garage Organization

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that my parents helped us put up some shelving and hooks and things to help get our garage organized. I wish I'd taken before and after pictures, but I didn't think of that. It's still a work in progress, but here's what we have so far.

Storage and shelves in front of the cars. Some of this area is used for storing kitchen items since it's close to the door.



I really wanted a place to hang the folding chairs and we found a perfect place for those. The car has to be able to pull almost all the way to the wall so that we can get in our storm shelter that is in the garage floor underneath the car so we could not put much low on the wall in front of the car.

We have a really nice section for hand tools. The toolboxes are on a shelf below the hanging tools.

We also have a nice area for garden tools and larger lawn care tools.

I forgot to take a picture of the gardening center. I will have to add that another day.

I think we've made a great start to getting the garage organized. We've gotten rid of a lot of stuff that we didn't need any more too. That's a huge help to being able to keep things clean.

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July Weekend Adventure - Blue Whale of Catoosa

Our fourth and last stop on our July weekend adventure was the Blue Whale of Catoosa. It's basically this giant whale in the middle of a little pond. It appears the pond used to be used for swimming and the whale was the diving board, but swimming is no longer allowed. That didn't stop Noah from trying to go down the slide (into the water!) And it didn't stop him from going to stand on the very edge of the tail of the whale.

I bet you didn't notice this, but in the picture above Noah is looking out one of the peep holes in the whale's nose. There was a ladder inside that allowed access to the upper deck inside the whale. 

Doesn't Noah look sad in the picture below? It was really hot out there and he wanted to play in the sand pile behind him, but I wouldn't let him get dirty. 

We didn't stay very long. Just stopped by to see it and experience it and then we were on our way back home.

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4th of July Recap

I don't know why it's so hard, but sometimes I fall behind on blogging and it's hard to catch up. It's been a week and I haven't even mentioned Independence Day.

Can I talk about a holiday without talking about food? How about just some pictures of the sugar cookies we made? We had so much fun baking and decorating together.

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July Weekend Adventure - Tulsa Garden Center @ Woodward Park

The third stop on our weekend adventure was the Tulsa Garden Center at Woodward park.  This park has a small kids play area - and I do mean very small.

But it also had a really awesome garden. I loved seeing all the different plants that they were growing in their gardens. Everything was extremely well-kept. 

We found this koi pond with a neat little bridge over the water.

While we were standing here, a woman came out with a little container of fish food and asked if we wanted to feed them. When we started feeding them, a little more fish came out of nowhere to eat. 

They also had a butterfly garden, but we didn't see any butterflies. We only saw bees!

Oh, and this bunny.

They had pretty much every color of flowers that you could think of. The woman we talked with said it was all maintained by volunteers. 

This was one of my favorite stops on the trip.

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July Weekend Adventure - Praying Hands at Oral Roberts University

Our next stop on our weekend adventure was the Praying Hands statue at Oral Roberts University. Can i just say that this statue is HUGE? I didn't even know there was a Praying Hands statue at Oral Roberts until I started looking up things to do in Tulsa.

They had a neat little garden around the statue and a series of flags from different countries.  In front of the statue was a hedge shaped like a cross. 

It was so hot and muggy out there that we didn't stay long, but I'm glad we made the stop. 

I loved their gardens. Everything was so neat and well-kept.

Keep checking back to see where we went next. 

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July Weekend Adventure - Oklahoma Aquarium

This weekend, we went on an adventure to the Tulsa area. Funny how Tulsa is not that far away, but it's very rare that we make it up that way. Our first stop was Mexican food at Los Cabos and then the Oklahoma Aquarium. 

The aquarium has been open for about 14 years, but we've never been.  It was really neat though.

We all enjoyed seeing all the different exhibits. 

We all took a bunch of pictures of the different animals. 

Noah is such an independent guy. He has no problem walking off on his own and blazing his own path. Watch out world when this one gets older!

He also has some pretty cute dance moves, don't you think?

See what I mean about the smooth moves? 

Shhhh, don't wake the octopus! There was a temporary barricade around his tank and a sign that said "No Flash Photography". Maybe he's grumpy?

We went through the shark tunnel and Noah and I found ourselves in the shark cage. Don't think I'd be brave enough to get in a shark cage in the ocean though. 

We did not spend a lot of time here, mostly because of how quickly Noah was moving through it. I would go back someday though. They are already planning to add some new exhibits soon.

Keep watching for updates to see where else we went on our Saturday adventure.

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Thanksgiving in June

I think it's common knowledge around here, but I work from home. My office window looks out across my front yard, but window is behind me when I'm sitting at my desk. The other day, I was on a work call and I turned around to get up for a minute and there was a turkey running across the yard in front of my window. Yes, a real live turkey, not a crazy neighbor.

I just got up and took my cell phone and headset with me and went outside to take a picture of the turkey. He was in between our house and the neighbor's house. I took his picture and then he hopped up onto our fence and went into our backyard.

I went back through the house to the backyard to see what he was doing. We have a wrought iron fence in the back and he was in one corner of the yard trying to get through between the bars. When that didn't work, he started running across the yard really fast and took off flying over the fence and out of sight.

That was the last I saw of the turkey so we couldn't have Thanksgiving dinner in June after all.

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Vacation Bible School

Our church had Vacation Bible School last week. Emily was too old to go as a student, but she went a a helper. She assisted in the preschool music area. I think she really enjoyed it. 

Noah was in one of the second grade classes and he really had a good time. He liked the music and all the crafts that they made. During the praise and worship time in the auditorium, they throw out t-shirts - I can't remember what they call it. Toss out? Or something? Anyway, Noah really wanted to catch a shirt, but he never did. 

On Thursday at VBS, Noah accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior and asked Jesus into his heart! We are so excited for him and so proud of him. I know that he understands the decision that he's making and he's excited about too. I'm so happy that all of my family will be with me in heaven some day. 

Thursday night was Family Night. I loved seeing Noah singing and doing the motions to all the songs that they sung. They threw some more shirts, but we couldn't catch one. After the worship service, went to the atrium where they had snow cones, cotton candy, hot dogs, inflatables, and games. It was a lot of fun!

Since I had to work and couldn't go up to the church to help at bible school, I decided to make treats for the workers. 

The first day, Emily and I made some brightly colored cake pops. Emily and I put colored sanding sugar on most of them. A few of them, we just put sprinkles. They were Devil's Food on the inside. So good. The workers really loved them. 

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Meet Mr. Stripes

This morning, I went out to check on my flowers and I noticed a turtle "stuck" under my outdoor sink. He was just sitting there. It looked like he'd gotten himself wedged between the concrete pad and the bricks and he couldn't get out. 

I figured he'd eventually get himself out so I left him there and went back to work. I came back out around lunch to check on him, but he was still in the same spot.  I got the broom and tried to lift him up onto the concrete pad so that he could go on his way, but he was hissing and acting all angry and I couldn't really get him up onto the concrete. In the middle of my "daring rescue," my phone rings and I have to abandon my broom and go take care of work.


I came back about an hour later and he was gone! I started looking around for him and finally found him up on the porch underneath my favorite chair. He was just sitting there hanging out. I checked on him several times during the day and he just stayed in that comfy spot in the shade.

When it was almost time for the kids to come home, I went out to check to make sure he was still there so that I could show the kids, but he was gone! I found him making a break for the back fence. I used the broom to bring him back toward the house and left him about 6 feet from the porch so that the kids could see him

When the kids got home not five minutes later, that turtle had made himself at home right outside the back door by the flower pots! 

He stayed there all evening, but when I went to check on him a few minutes ago he was gone again. I couldn't find him in the yard so I guess he's off living the dream. 

Oh well, how about a picture of a pretty hibiscus instead?

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At the Movies

This afternoon, we went to see Captain Underpants at the theater. Noah has been asking to go see this movie since it first came out several weeks ago.

We finally had time to go today and I'm glad we did. The movie was full of potty humor, which a certain young boy thought was hilarious.

What was really cool about this movie was that it was shown in one of the theater's "Screening Rooms." I'd never been in one of these before, but it had heated reclining seats, individual armrests, and snack trays. It was very nice. I never want to go to a regular movie again. Okay?

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