Cole Has New Wheels

This is a 2006 Toyota Rav4. I took this pic from a Toyota site. Nicole's has a little over 22k miles and is midnight blue. Very nice and pretty. It was odd to see little Nicole driving a vehicle larger than her little two door Nissan. But it is hers and she is very very happy to have it.

She has earned this vehicle. She is holding down an A average at OU, not to mention her job as Resident Assistant. Her mom is responsible for getting OHLAP which pays her tuition. The RA position pays room and board. Her good grades ensures that she keeps all her scholarships. So, when she placed all that on the table, well, her dad really couldn't say no to her request. =)

79

Who knew that I could pass Algebra? Better question, who knew I would end up with a 79?!

Well, I'm happy to announce that the toughest class I've had thus far in my life is finally over and I indeed have a 79 average! Woo hoo!

Other than that, life is pretty good. I have a two week vacation until the next semester begins.

Long days and pleasant nights to ya.

Hayden's Visit

Hayden has been asking if he can stay with me and swim in my (his) swimming pool. So last weekend I went to Patty and Jimmy's to pick him up.

The weekend began rather badly. Toby was up all night vomiting. When he wasn't vomiting Millie tried attacking the family bird. Needless to say when Nannie arrived at 7:30am I wasn't able to move. So Patty took her to Tulsa for a day of crafting with Aunt B and Nichole.

It was a good thing that I stayed behind. Alecia called around noon and asked if I could go ahead and pick up Hayden. I, of course, had no objections. After a couple of episodes of Sponge Bob at Aunt Patty's house, we were off to Tulsa.

Our first objective after leaving the dogs at the apartment was going to the grocery store. Can you believe that there wasn't one box of cereal that Hayden or I liked? We ended up with eggs, bacon and biscuits. Yummy! For dinner we had lasagna and garlic bread with peach cobbler for dessert. Double Yummy!! Oh, and we also bought choco milk. A house isn't properly equipped without it.

We also boght Spiderman bubble bath and a pirate ship. He had to take a bath before dinner was ready. Then we walked Toby and Millie. Or should I say, Spiderman and I walked Toby and Millie. He insisted on bringing his Spiderman costume and wore it when we went out.

After dinner we transformed the transformer couch into a bed. Hayden watched Nemo and then we put in Madagascar. Next thing we knew it was morning.

First thing after breakfast we went to check out the pool. We were there about an hour then went to the park. We played there for a couple of hours then had a hotdog and ice cream.

Mooma showed up and the real fun began. We were in the pool around 3 hours before Poppie and Grannie arrived. Boy were we tired.

Things I learned from the visit: Yellow Power Rangers are girls, so when Hayden is a Power Ranger he is White; Yellow is ok when he is a Transformer; He is Pink when he is playing Sponge Bob because Patrick is Pink; Tom and Jerry is an OK cartoon if news is your other option; choco milk goes with any food group; He is moving to Tulsa so he can work with Frank.

It was a very fun weekend. I was worn out but will take him anytime.

Long nights and pleasant days to ya.

Rocklahoma Rocked

When you age, you tend to forget what it was that made you smile before. For me that is what Rocklahoma was all about.

I had forgotten how wonderful CC and all those others that rocked with him in the 80's were on the guitar. I love the fun rock-n-roll from when I was in my late teens and early twenties. The memories last weekend brought are so wonderful and also not so wonderful.

There were the parties during our senior year where we really rocked out to Joan Jett, Def Leppard and that sort. Not to mention the punk movement at the time. No, none of us actually dyed our hair pink, but we did think about it at some point.

There were the MTV and radio wars with my baby sister. She was all Quiet Riot and Twisted Sister. I leaned more toward Duran Duran, Def Leppard, Journey, Motley Crue... you get the picture. Don't get me wrong Quiet Riot was not off my play list, so to speak. We did both emphatically agree on Prince. The original Prince - if you ask me, and I am, Purple Rain was one of the top ten non Beatles albums ever made.

Then what about the fact that Nicole could sing Poison and Bon Jovi songs before she could put a sentence together. Her absolute favorite song was "....skinny bop bop bop bop skinny..." Makes me smile. When Brett sang that I was horrified to find that my phone battery was dead. This is mainly due to beer calls. So I couldn't call her. Or what about when he sang "Every Rose has it's thorn"? Talk about summing up my life since 1986! Give me something to believe in took me right back to watching that video standing in my living room in Tulsa, holding baby Nicole, balling my eyes out.

I would at this point like to leave memory lane, simply because I'm beginning to miss my first set of friends. The ones that saw me thru high school and my early twenties. For more pics go to http://picasaweb.google.com/tammiek1966/Rocklahoma2007

Now on to more technical Rocklahoma. I remember the day that Mark Nuessle and gang walked into our office. Barbara was trying to talk about country while covertly having me ask Jo questions to verify the "realness" of who these people were. Those first few years were chaotic to say the least. But as someone who has really worked one of their festivals, I don't mean for just a few hours, they have really matured. I didn't see one fight. Although the cute guard that let me take a couple of pics, told me he had to break up a couple. I hope I looked genuinely concerned...

The crowd seemed to really enjoy themselves. What a wonderful time we all had.

Oh, should I mention that it was in the 1980's that I also fell in love with SK?

Long Days and Pleasant Nights to ye...

Goodbye Jesi

When I think of Jesi the first thing I see is her smile. She had the biggest most beautiful smile that lit her whole face.

Jesi was only 20 when fate took her away. She and Nicole grew up together. I've tried to remember when Jesi first came into our lives and it seems that she has always been there.

She was one of the eight valedictorians from PHS class of 2005. She and Nicole attended every band camp together. They were both honor students and best of friends. Jesi was full of life and seemed to love every minute of it. She played the trumpet, she was so tall you rarely had to search to see her.

Her friends are working on a memorial scholarship/grant for the PHS band program. That is where her heart was for most of her young life.

We will say our formal goodbye Friday afternoon. Please keep Jim, Becky, Jaime and Carolyn in your thoughts. Also say a small prayer for her friends who are learning how to grieve at an age when they should only be thinking of tomorrow.

Nothing much

It's been an interesting holiday week.

Monday Nannie turned 86. Patty picked her and Sis up and they met mom, dad, hayden and Zeke at Western Sizzlin in McAlester. This was Nannie's birthday lunch. Evidently when everyone was seated Hayden looked around the table and asked where Aunt Tammie was and when told that Aunt Tammie was in Tulsa, that wasn't acceptable. He has since told me that I need to move to Calester so he can see me whenever he wants. Let's all say "AWWWW"

Yesterday, I spent a couple hours poolside. Would've stayed longer but the battery on my MP3 player died. It at least waited until the song I was listening to finished. So I packed up my stuff and went off to Kohl's. I bought some new shorts for Rocklahoma and a new pair of capri's for the Block Party Weather. I'm planning to charge the shirt I bought to Frank's clothing allowance. Shhh, maybe he won't notice. lol After shopping I called Kenna and asked if she would like Roadhouse steak. She agreed that she would. We skipped the 25 minute wait and went straight to the bar. My steak was a little too well-done for me but other than that, the beer was good, conversation wonderful and well it was the roadhouse...

Today we had algebra. I might mention that we were the only class in that building that actually met today. Again I think I'm grasping the stuff but the test will be hard and I'll probably fail it. I currently have a 74 average. That is passing.

Long days and pleasant nights to ye.

Happy Birthday

Two of my favorite people turn over another calendar year today.

Happy Birthday Nannie!
July 2, 1921 Mildred Louise McKee was born to Clarence and Hattie McKee. She is now the Mother of 4, Grandmother of 10, Great Grandmother of 13 and Great-Great Grandmother of 2.

Happy Birthday Jo
Jo was also born on July 2. We will go no further with that except that two weeks in a row she could've taken 20-somethings home with her. I'm so jealous.

How was my weekend?

Well, it began with finding Jason Boland at my workplace when I arrived. You have no idea how that made my day.

Then after work, Jo and I met some of my co-workers at McNellies downtown. It was fun we had a drink and split a sandwich and fries. Then we made the short trek to the Cain's. We made our way to the stage. Unfortunately the people (I use that term loosely) that arrived before us were pretty stoned by the time we made it there. They seemed to believe that they owned the stage and no one else was allowed within 30 feet of them. The very intoxicate male that thought he was a tough guy by threatening to kick my ass never stopped talking about how tough he is. Then some blonde trash that was standing near me decided to begin using her very large backside to push me further back from the stage. When I suggested that she stop doing that she alluded that if she were indeed pushing me I would be on the floor. To that I laughed hartily. I also held my ground while looking around to see if Carolyn had purhaps been dropped from the ceiling to join this interesting party.

Once Grady and I made eye contact that I was confident had been meant for me, Jo and I went for another drink and the bathroom. We had a blast from that moment on. Even when the interesting boy bought us drinks that we really didn't need. I don't remember ever having to flee a dancehall because we were afraid of a boy. Hmmm

Anywho, Jo fixed a computer so that my SK stories would work on the MP3 player. I spent the rest of the weekend either listening to SK read to me or reading the book posthumously written by Richard Bachman and edited by Stephen King. It was a book that really held my attention and actually finished in one weekend. The best part - at then end we received a bool! In actuality is was just a station for a longer bool that we don't get until Spring of 2008.

Now I must get some sleep. Algebra homework begins again tomorrow night.

Long Days and Pleasant Nights to Ya...