Last night I had a house full of teenage girls from church over for a slumber party. I taught them how to make homemade pizza and my kitchen was trashed! We had fun swimming, eating, doing make-up & nails, talking, watching uplifting videos and playing with Shelby's snake. We finished it off with a pancake breakfast. I just now finished dishes and it's 3:30 p.m. - Kidding...

I have always marveled at how much my hands look like my dads...you can't deny those genetics - except for the tan which I take from my mom's side - thank goodness:) I guess we even have the same taste in rings. Look how we even held our pinkies the same - CRAZY stuff. That was not planned. I just noticed it looking at this.

It's all fun and games until someone gets bit in the face

It's always fun to take pictures out there - great spot for photography

Today after church we went to Pawhuska to visit family. This is my dad's place where a tornado tore through several weeks ago. I was shocked to see how many large trees were ripped out by the roots. News on 6 reported from there too - I guess they are famous now!

this was my attempt at storing potatoes in the pantry floor. I went to pick up the paper sack and ta da - the bottom ripped out...at least the ants had died that I carried in with the potatoes and dirt.

When all of our watermelon and cantalope are ready to harvest we will have enough to feed AMERICA!!! Hank got a little carried away when planting them. He didn't know how much they would produce. If you see me standing on the street corner selling them out of the back of my car will you please buy some!

I think we mostly ate our way to through TULSA that day....YUMMY:) Can you think of a better way to spend a hot summer day? This was after the dentist so they were rewarding themselves:) Sam is always the jokster and told me if I put this picture on my blog I was DEAD...I told him I wouldn't, but I guess I lied - sorry Sam.

when I came out of church I saw my car bouncing up and down and then I noticed a pack of boys jumping up and down on the back bumper...Hank if the back axle breaks off it's their fault.

who would eat that???? SHELBY of course

Shelby's favorite thing to eat in the whole world is PEACHWAVE (bacon runs a close second) so we had to stop there.

Sam did some drumming in Guitar Center...if I can brag a little- everyone in the store commented on how good he was and asked how long he had been playing....

The girls and I got colored hair extensions at the mall - Fun stuff!
Now that we live ALL the way out here in Bristow, going to the big city is an all day event...hehe. The other day we had 2 doctors apts and church so we wondered all over Tulsa having fun!

Stella made a fort on the boat.

He's the one in the black shirt

Sam went to OU Football camp, met Bob Stoops had his picture made with him (autographed and all), stayed in the dorms (Walker Tower) and thought he was pretty big stuff getting to have pizza delivered to the room late at night just like a college kid:)

Just playing around with an iphone app.

What I wish I had a picture of was the boys out at the dumpster at 1:30 a.m. thinking they had a raccoon (they have been baiting one with marshmallows, dog food and nuts) but then a bobcat and possum jumped out at them!!! I would have given anything to see them scream and run...

Mario had his turn too - I'm sorry Mario.

this is the latest belted trash bag dress....coming soon to Neimans!

Today shelby is playing fashion designer and Stella is her model.

let there be squash and zucchini!!!
The garden is paying Hank back for all of his hard work. I don't know what to do with all of this food. Tried freezing sugar snap peas and they turned to mush - how sad they are my favs! Storing potatoes in paper bags full of dirt in the pantry floor and we are having a stew tonight made from some of this squash and zucchini. Looks like we will have several thousand watermelon and cantaloupes! Any ideas? The only thing we don't have, but really want are blackberries. None of our wild ones produced (too dry - froze?) and our fruit trees all froze so no fruit this year....except for a few cherries that the birds will eat:(

"Bags of puke"

Which brings me to why Hank had to cook his own father's day meals...Friday I was cleaning the mirror in my bathroom when I leaned and twisted at the same time. At that moment I heard my back pop and felt a familiar pain of disks being herniated. I have a bad lower back and neck (in total 5 herniated disks). By Saturday I was feeling pretty yucky but thought I could ride to Tulsa to pick SAm up from camp and go with the family to get Hank's father's day gift. NO WAY! By the time we got Sam I needed to go right back home because the pain was so bad I was getting nauseous. I started throwing up in Hank's car on the turnpike. He pulled over so I could throw a trash bag of vomit out the window and get a new one. Just then a state trooper pulled up and told Hank to get out and pick up my bag of puke. He stuck his head in the window and saw me with tears running down my face, throwing up and didn't care one bit. So Hank gets out and retrieves the puke and puts it in the floor board. By the time we got home he had several more bags to deal with. He pulled over again while I was throwing up and I said "JUST GET ME OUT OF THIS CAR!!!" By midnight last night I had thrown up at least 7-8 times and was totally wiped out. I was tearing through the medicine cabinet looking for any leftover narcotic we had from someone's surgery, dental procedure - ANYTHING. Hank said "take the strongest thing in there." I also use Icy Hot and a heating pad. I can walk now, but barely, and the vomiting has stopped - THANK GOODNESS. My poor kids had to help change out throw up bowls because I couldn't even get up yesterday. So it was kind of a rotten fathers day weekend around here. We had to reschedule with my dad for next weekend. Maybe my tomatoes will be ripe by then and i can take him some.

So far this hasn't relaxed me because every time I walk into the bathroom I think there is a leak somewhere and I panic for a second.

Father's Day Weekend

The kids wrapped this gift for Hank and then Sam put it together for him. See above picture. Hank likes little water things....plus they are good FengShui.

too cute:)

I just walked into my bathroom to find this...Stella played mad scientist with the soap. She said "well I'm foam lady I had to!" I asked her how much soap she used (as I looked at the empty bottle with no lid) and she said "the rest of it." " Plus some pink soap. " You can only get away with this for so long so you might as well go for it.

AFTER....

this picture doesn't do the filth justice

This is the barn floor...every so often I clean it out and from these pictures you can tell it was well overdue. It was stacked knee deep in hay during the winter and I tracked mud in and out every day. I am happiest when I am outside, in old clothes, working and dirty. As I was cleaning the barn I thought "this is fun." Strange I know. I like cleaning up june bugs, mud, bar bait, molded feed and gasoline!
I saw a HUGE RAT in the barn which didn't scare me near as bad as the 3 brown recluses I have found in our BED in the past few weeks! Dan the bug man does his best, but you can't kill those things. Only glue traps work - which are stuck to everything we own. They are more like human, sheet, toy, dog traps...they seem to catch everything else. Spiders scare me more than anything else. Me and Crocodile Hunter.

My cilantro then turned into this salsa...yummy. I made a separate batch for me with peppers from the garden (also a first for us) since I like my food HOT and SPICY!!!

I better start looking for some potato recipes - ASAP!

Shelby helped me dig up potatoes. By the time we were done digging 1 row, we were covered with ants, bleeding, dirty and sweating, but boy will we enjoy those potatoes!!

Stella passed on potato digging. I guess she was worn out from dusting. As she was cleaning earlier she said "it's ok Shelby, you sit there and keep playing computer and I will take all of the money." I reminded her that they do not get paid for household chores and Stella said "well, I will be happy to do my chores outside then." The dusting went pretty well until she found her doll and started putting hair tinsel in her hair and feeding her blackberries.

Constant insistence that the dog swims...he looks really excited huh? Look at him digging his back feet in.

Stella's Willy Wonka sunglasses:)

of course there was swimming...these are my two mermaid/dolphins who pretend they are dolphins caught in the tuna net and must be rescued.

Our summer day:
We harvested some fresh, organic-everything we grow is organic and it's so worth it- cilantro from the garden (1st time we have grown it), swam, Stella got stung by her first bee and lived to tell about it (I was worried I would have to use EPI pen), did a little cleaning, dug potatoes and did lots of cooking. In my book that is a perfect day. Cooking relaxes me.

this is what i picture it being like when we go to Heaven....a little window opens right up for us and there is an amazing light behind it:)

as the storm rolled in this evening I snapped a few pictures of the awesome clouds...