Wornoutwoman

Some of you may have seen it on the national news.  Some of you live here in Oklahoma City and heard the blast for yourself.  This weekend has been one for the books as far as I'm concerned. At 3:15 a.m. on Saturday morning, my husband and I shot up from our bed as a loud sound boomed through our home.  A split second later, our home alarm squealed through the air as the previous noise had triggered the 'break glass' function near our back door. What we didn't know then was that deafening noise that filled our house was the result of a gas explosion only a street or two away.  The impact shook the back of our home, triggering our alarm and shaking loose some of our framing and exterior. As I crept through the dark interior of our house, my husband talked to the alarm company through what we heard not knowing if it was an intruder or something else.  They said they'd send out a cruiser, but without the siren, as our concern was...

This week has been a crazy roller coaster on many levels, but you all know that I choose to focus on the good in life to shine through the chaos that can quickly cover us with a blanket of anxiety.   So here are a few things that made me smile this week: So proud of my husband!  Saturday night, he went to his little man cave.  It's more of a 'man-cubicle'.  Anyways, he started to his sanctuary to get his runners bib, to lay out all his gear in preparation for the Memorial Marathon the next morning. He came out of his room with a giggle, and a surprised look as he had  thought he'd be doing a 5K until he noticed his running bib showed otherwise. Nope! He had been signed up through his work for the 1/2 Marathon. So ... with no training or jogging to ramp up, leading up to his supposed 5K turned 1/2 Marathon - he nodded his head with determination and said, "I'm just going to see how far I can go. I'll take it one mile at a ti...

I started a new full-time job, on Friday, which means I now will not be able to go to any of the home games for The University of Oklahoma. (BOOMER SOONER!)  When I took the position, I told them I already had plans for Saturday or yesterday.  It was the first game of the season - and we had a huge family tailgate planned and everyone was counting on me begin there. It was in the high nineties yesterday with no cloud cover.  So to say it was hot was an understatement. Some of the ladies around me literally had their makeup melting away as the heat had them drenched.  My sister had an awesome mister bottle that she kept spraying us with, and we had a nice fan plugged in so we could get some air ... but it was still sweltering. The reason I love these things is that all of our friends and family stopping in to visit and eat.  We all bring something and usually, there's a ton of food.  We have our standard group of people in our tent, and they all usuall...

This has been one of the busiest summers I can remember.  As my kid gets older, there are more parties, interests, and activities he's delving into which means more drive time, which I'm happy to do.  I know my ever-changing Manual for Motherhood is filling up, as I grow as a mom with my child's different stages. Every phase, I marvel at how blessed I am to be my kid's mom. This summer, we decided to try something different. Lil' T is at the age, where church intramural teams have aged out, and team sports for school don't start till next year. So he's been in limbo, without something motivating him to stay active.  I didn't want him sitting inside all summer, on his computer playing Minecraft. As we were researching our options, a friend recommended kayaking. Oklahoma City has a training site for top rowing athletes, in which they train Olympic athletes.  Our friend told us about their program for kids, which seemed like a good introduction ...

I have a few different Bibles at home, of which I read when I can.  I admit I'm trying to be better and starting a daily reading plan is a high priority.  So, I have one at home on my nightstand, and another on my desk at work. The one I have at work is my student Bible, from when I was in college, and inside are a few different bookmarks (random pieces of paper). Today, I took time after my devotions to read these scraps of paper. The one that hit home was a receipt from Walmart, dated May 5th, 1995. It included random items, like shelf paper, sponges, gourmet pans for the kitchen, and laundry baskets. Immediat ely, I was taken back in time to where I was stocking up on my new pad, as a fresh college grad, with the grand ideas we all hold that the future is full of potential for our own paths in life. As my heart swelled with memories that swirled in my mind of who I was in this time in life, I took a deep breath in feeling like I'm nowhe...

Source: kfor.com via Kimberly on Pinterest This morning I got up at 4:20 a.m. and dragged my hiney out of bed to get ready for my 6 a.m. interview with Miss Ali , a very talented news anchor for KFOR News. You can reach the interview by clicking the picture above, which will take you to my Pinterest ... which then links to the newscast. Or you can just click here . I'm thankful that this time I didn't talk with my hands.  LOL.

So right about now I'm wondering how the Oklahoma Tourism Department is going to entice anyone to visit our state. Their slogan, Is this a great state or what?  isn't quite the right fit for us after 2011. Somehow, I don't think this year would make anyone think 'Yeah! I'm going to Oklahoma!' In fact, most of us who live here and love it, is seriously thinking about why we love it so much. After experiencing this year, I've caught myself looking to skies to watch for swarms of locusts or the second coming. LOL. If you've been anywhere near a TV you may have seen that Oklahoma has been in the news. The national reports have shown 2011 as being the record-breaking year for Oklahoma's weather. We've set records with the strongest earthquakes in state records, the longest drought, the hottest summer, the most tornadoes, the biggest blizzard, the most rain, and flooding. All in one year! Sheesh! And it's not like it's been quiet...

So it's been pretty crazy here for the last couple of months. Between getting stranded Christmas Eve for six hours, in a massive snowstorm, to getting hit again this week with another ice storm. The first of the two storms - gave us over twelve inches of snow for days on end. Christmas was not typical in that most families were not together, because they were stranded and unable to travel. We just took down our Christmas tree last week because we promised our son we'd keep it up until all our family Christmases were done. It almost felt like winter was trailing off until this blasted ice storm hit this week. Again - because I'm 'that' lucky, I worked most days during the storms and ended up traveling home in it all again. Thankfully, I work for a wonderful company that allowed me to close our store so that myself and one employee could go home.  We closed two full hours before the mall did. You know it's serious when two major highways are shut do...

BOOMER SOONER! I used to attend the games with my husband before my son was born. We got season tickets the season before I was pregnant.  Then, motherhood hit and football was something I could watch from home, as my husband made the trek to Norman. Being at home with my little one was more my speed. Now that he's five, I'm ready to get a sitter and get back to the games. Next season, we'll get an extra ticket to make it a family event for the three of us. Even though it's already a huge family event. My husband, sister, brother-in-law, and mother-in-law all go in on a bunch of tickets so that we all can cheer on our team. My husband's first love after his family, of course, is sports. Since this was his birthday weekend, I figured it would be a perfect game to attend with him and my sis. The weather was awesome. The Sooners kicked big time TCU butt. And my son had a great time at his Nana's house, while we kicked it in the stadium....

I took this from my phone, so it's not the best quality but I couldn't resist posting anyway. Vocally, Jon sounded better than I remember, plus he's in great shape. The man never stopped for over two hours. He shook, rocked and rolled on stage while remembering his fans in every way. I got a guitar pick from one of his staff members that roamed through the crowd, looking for certain individuals from the stage. I guess I didn't have the look he was going for because all night he stood right in front of me and picked people right around me to go to the sides of the stage, where they had risers set up for these individuals. He gave them all these guitar picks...so I thought heck at least I can do is ask him if I can have an extra. He was gracious enough to give me one. I would have loved to go side stage...but my seats were so good that I felt as if I already was. We were on the front row at the edge of the ice rink. So we were up one level from those on...

This time of year has hints of spring, and then the cold weather and the tornadoes storm in. Right now it's stormy with threats of tornadoes, so I manipulated this nice spring sunset to show signs of storms in play. This was taken at Lake Hefner in OKC, which is one of my favorite places at sunset.

Friday night was my sister's birthday party, which was held at an old haunt of mine. It's since changed hands and is under a new name, Club Rodeo, but it's still the same old place. A few things have changed, like the location of the dance floor. They've added a bullpen at the end, for live bull riding. The crowd last night was a little older, but it's the same ol' place. In fact, I almost could dictate what song would be played from hour to hour...country then rock...country then dance music. It was fun! I hadn't two-stepped for about ten years, but it was like riding a bike. I danced with our friends all night as my husband left a little early to go get our son. I stayed to spend the night out on the town with my best friend and sister. She's one and the same! And although I'm still sleepy today...it was well worth it! It was great being there with loved ones and friends. I loved experiencing it as a 30-something, happily married gir...

I'm home and bushed. I walked for two days in my heels in the rain and drove over 500 miles. I got a lot accomplished for work, and I am glad I went. The best part was visiting family nearby. I loved spending the night at my grandparent's home. I hadn't been there since my grandfather's death in 2000. That town holds so many haunting memories for me that it had always been hard to even think about returning. It was good to visit my grandmother and get some closure on that chapter in my life as well. It was healing on so many levels. The drive between multiple towns was extremely relaxing. I took many photographs which you can see on my flicker site, but I'll post a few for fun. The only sad part was all the flooding. Oklahoma has had a lot...I mean a lot of rain, so driving held a lot of areas that were underwater. Thankfully the highway I was on was over some of the newly formed lakes that settled onto the low ground. I took lots of pictures o...

I write this in utter sadness. My sidekick, the one thing I could always count on....is missing! My 13-year-old chocolate lab, Hershey, was let out of my yard tonight after I left home. 6:00 CST or any time after, someone opened our gate and let out my loyal companion. Here it is almost midnight and he's not anywhere to be found. Hershey is obviously very old, but can't get half a block without panting and straining. He usually has to turn back home, because he is too tired to go any further. Currently, his fur is shaved short for the summer. So he looks like a greyhound with brown fur, instead of a chocolate lab. He would never make it past my neighbor's house without turning back for my porch. He would NEVER not come home. He also needs his medication or he will get really sick. We drove three neighborhoods, and I saw no signs of any animals on the road. No one claimed to see him. We called for hours with no response. It's like someone opened our g...