Extreme Sunday Walk in The Neighborhood...

So having this Extreme Makeover build site so close to the house is kinda cool and kinda weird.  Yesterday I went over to the Fair Grounds Pavilion to see how the food drive is going... The whole thing is odd.  Did you know that the builder is in charge of the volunteer schedules and checking-in of volunteers and the shuttle runs to and from the build site?  They are.  And being an event planner, my insides were screaming to let me take charge, but I refrained.

I stayed around for a few hours and chatted with a past board member and also with one of the Extreme security guys.  Pretty neat guy.  He "lives" in California, works 2 weeks for the show then he's off for 10 days.  He said they always have two builds going on at the same time.  They are divided into two teams:  the Alpha Team and the Beta Team.  This week Tulsa is the Alpha and there is another build going on elsewhere in OK that is the Beta Build.  He said they do at least 4 builds a month.  This is totally crazy to me.  It's basically like a Fuller Center blitz build but for one house in one week instead of 10 houses in one week and the organization that builds it is making a ton of moulah instead of struggling along the way.  I wonder if ABC would ever televise some Fuller Center or Habitat building sites in the coming years?  Now that would be good TV...

So we decided to venture to the spectator area of the build today.  You know... where the lemmings go who don't wish to volunteer but have high hopes of running into Ty in the process... ummm I mean who love to watch blitz builds and construction workers.... Anyway, it was cool.  Kind of like a movie set and a build site combined... which is exactly what it is 24 hours a day.

This is on our way to the spectators area, which is the fenced in section on the left.

So this is the house... it's a 3,000 square foot, two story house.  I'm guessing it's at least twice the size of the original house.  Also yesterday at 3pm they were pouring the foundation.  Today at 2pm they were already finished with the back side of the roof and beginning this side.  The truckload of drywall had just arrived and they were about to start spraying insulation.  If anything, this process of building this house is FAST.  They put some kind of special additive in the foundation concrete to make it dry in 4 hours.  Crazy.

First I apologize for the ugly tent blocking the view... Second, I know you've all seen the humongous houses that Extreme Makeover has built for families in the past.  Do you see the little white peak to the left of the house they are building?  That is not a part of the new house, that is the new house's neighbor.  It looks like the freaking garage compared to this new house.  And this is what most of the houses in the neighborhood look like...

These houses are typically 1920's or 1930's brick or craftsman bungalows with 2-3 bedrooms and 1 bath.

 Hello higher property taxes!  lol  It will definitely be interesting to see how they try to blend it into the neighborhood once it's finished, which is supposed to be Wednesday.  Yes, that is in 3 days.

This deserves its own post.... The Ice Monster.

I love this man.  He keeps me entertained, and vice versa I believe.  :)

More. Snow. Long. Blog.

So we got all hunkered down... so to speak.  So we got a load of ice, then a load of snow on top of it all in about 24 hours.

These are our burford hollies on the side of our front porch before the snow part of the storm hit.  I love watching the hollies during the winter because they collect the ice and snow just beautifully.

This is our iced over neighborhood.  Pretty much all the trees in Tulsa look like this right now.  Like crystal!

And then it really started snowing!  It snowed for a loooong time.  We went out in the middle of it to drive around, lord don't ask me why... and please don't mind the stray line in the middle of the video... I'm getting my camera lens cleaned this week...

Shane was just driving around the neighborhood... trying to avoid sliding into other cars...

And the next thing I know, this cute little scottish terrier is in my lap in the front seat of the car!  "What?" you may ask...  well we were driving along and this little dog was wondering around in the middle of the street.  It was snowing like crazy and when we stopped the car to look at him, he just stood there and stared at us.  Shane asked what we should do and the next thing I know I'm opening the car door and pulling this snowy wet dog onto my lap!  LOL.  Then I realize he doesn't have a tag with his name on it... oh wait, it was embroidered on his collar!  Thank God!  So Shane is calling the number and no one is answering, and Shane says, "Oh boy.  What have we gotten ourselves into?"  I just laughed nervously and told him to dial the number again.  Finally a woman answered and we took "Sam" to his home.  Poor dog has a beagle brother who teaches him bad tricks, like running around the neighborhood instead of staying in his own yard.  All I have to say is, thank god we didn't get stuck with that dog.  I think Belle would have definitely disowned us.

ANYWAY...

This is what we came home to.  My poor little car couldn't make it into the driveway, so we just parked it on the side of the street.  This snow was fast and furious.  It just kept getting heavier and heavier.

Saturday it was time to shovel!  Small "problem" though... we only purchased ONE snow shovel.  Ooops!  (hehe)

So it was up to Shane to shovel the driveway.  I personally think he does an awesome job and he's so fast at it too!  The dogs like to help him with this process.  What a couple of maniacs.  They love the snow more than some kids I know!

My favorite house... covered with snow and ice...

My favorite "pod" tree.  It's actually my favorite scotch pine in the world.  LOVE this tree.  Have I told you how I love this tree yet??  :)  At Christmas time, we had it all dolled up like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree.  

Belle and Brownie LOVE the snow.  Too bad they are limited to the edge of our driveway and can't roam the whole 'hood.  

And did I tell you this all started with an ice storm?  So we have these icicles hanging off our house...

Yes, it's longer than our windows are high.  These were the result of the crazy ice.  I'll be sad when these babies disappear, they're awesome!  

Thus endeth my ice/snow storm bloggeth.... peace.

Extreme, Hunkered Down, & Ready

Tulsa is in a pretty "extreme" position right now... in more ways than one.  One way has to do with a secret I've had to keep for about a week now.  ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is filming in Tulsa this week.  They contacted the Food Bank at the end of last week to let them know they were hosting a food drive.  The last food drive the show had raised over 93 TONS of food!  That's a lot, to say the least.  So everything with this show is super secret until they surprise the family.  When you watch the show and they knock on the family's door and they seem pretty surprised.... that's for real.  These families really don't know that they will be chosen for the makeover build.  So mum was the word.  No one couldn release where the initial meeting was held because it was the prep site for the build.  Then I figured out exactly where the house is, and that was a booger to keep secret too!

Well it's out now!  At 8am this morning ol' Ty and his crew knocked on the home of the Starkweather family.  This family just happens to live doors down from our good friend Wade and just 2 measly blocks away from our own home.  It's just too exciting for words!

The other reason Tulsa is so extreme right now?  We're in the midst of an ice storm.  It started with rain, then freezing rain... next up is sleet and ending with about 5 inches of snow by 6pm tomorrow evening.  "Yay!"  So two days ago Shane and I decided to get serious and prepare ourselves.  The last time Tulsa had a serious ice storm was December of 2007 and it left most of the city without power for as long as 8 days.

So we started by finally buying a snow shovel.  After the xmas eve blizzard we tried to buy one and they were all sold out.  So we beat the crowd this time!  Next up?  Grocery shopping.  We stocked up on enough food to keep us well nourished for a few days if stuck in the house.  Yesterday Shane picked up some batteries and flashlights, too.

The one on the right is my one.  :)  It's more slick looking, slightly smaller, and has LED lights, so it's super bright and will neeevvver die.  I tried it out yesterday when I got home from work by playing with the dogs.... my current dogs show no interest in chasing lights though.  I was a little disappointed.  I used to 'entertain' Belle#1 for hours in my mom's hallway with a flashlight.... hehe....

Around 2:30 I left work today.  My windshield was already completely glazed with ice.  Slowly there after I started seeing icicles...

This is our garage (which if there is one tree to fall down in this ice storm we hope it's the giant pecan above this garage) seen through the japanese maple in our back  yard.

Shane is shooting a time lapse of the ice storm.  So this is a new "decoration" in our living room right now.  I walked over to the hiking boot on the floor and said, "Now why is your boot over here?" and went to pick it up.  In return Shane practically screams, "Noooooo!"  He then explained that the boot is holding the tripod in place.  I didn't ask, I just put it back and walked away.  I have no idea...

Then he left and came back with this stuff.  Notice the snacks are in sets of two... kinda like Noah and the ark...   there's one for me and one for the boy.  We both like the Pringles.  He likes cashews, I like the chocolate....  so now we don't have to fight over our snacks.  And all is well in the world of ice storms and extreme makeovers...

~Fran

West Texas, Take Two

This weekend we headed to Paducah, TX... population 1,498.  Yep.  Shane's grand-parents (MawMaw & Popi) live here.  They have about 1,500 acres of W. TX ranch land... and it's really amazing stuff.

I could live right here and look at those plateaus every single day.  This is hard, rough land.  But there is something tauntingly beautiful about it.  I've never spent much time in W. TX until the past two weekends.  While I've been to Paducah once before, I didn't spend much time at "The Place" hiking the land, taking in every picturesque view, snapping my G7, and listening to dogs pant and men blow whistles....  what?  Yes, I went with Shane on a quail hunt.

This rough land is apparently ideal for quail.  I don't know what this means, but it's apparently true.  This picture however, was a false alarm.  Brownie's new cousin, Lilly apparently thought they were hunting snakes.  Oh well.  This was not a successful hunting day.  Not one bird was shot between three men and two dogs.

But Lilly and Brownie had fun regardless, even though Brownie grew frustrated when Lilly decided to continually sprint to the next county.  Do you see their "boots?"  Brownie's are genuine duct tape.

And he lost one along the way.  Brownie is kind of frantic, have you heard?  "Why the duct tape?" You may ask...  Well the dogs run like crazy searching for bird scent... it's their job, and unlike people they don't really care if they run over rocks, cactus, or prickly pear.  They just keep going with out looking back.  So to protect their foot pads, people either buy booties for their dogs or go the "other" route and use duct tape.  The duct tape is much less expensive, as all dogs lose at least one boot during their hunt.

Can you see why?  This is an example of the land at hand.  Just plain rugged.  Not only is it rugged, it's pretty hilly.  After a couple of hours of snapping photos and keeping up with Shane, I felt as if the tendons in my thighs were about to snap.  It's hard work hiking this land!

... because you have to dodge a lot of these...  yes, the land is shared with grazing cattle.  That's all I'll say about that.

The boys took a break and I cut my day short around noon to head back to the house for some of MawMaw's homemade chili.  After waiting the rain out, the boys headed back out with high hopes, and I headed to the couch to read my Real Simple and take a 2 hour nap.

I have more stories on the animals and land at The Place.  As for now, I'm about to catch some zzzz's.


~Fran

Cadillac Ranch. Amarillo Part 3

I'll be honest... I'd never even heard of Cadillac Ranch until Shane was suggesting things Michelle and I could do over the weekend.  I didn't really ask him what it was either.  I just took a mental note:  Cadillac Ranch, got it.  Then while Michelle and I were on our way to Palo Duro, she suggested we could go to Cadillac Ranch.  So I gave in.  I asked, "What the heck is Cadillac Ranch?"  She described it as a bunch of old Cadillacs in a field.  In my mind, I pictured hundreds of old Cadillacs.... well preserved, classic Cadillacs.

Sometimes I don't know what's wrong with my mind.  This is what we found instead.  Michelle didn't seem surprised as she has driven by it before.  I, however, was disturbingly confused.  Yeah, that's what I was.  Here is a little background on Cadillac Ranch.  Apparently this Stanley Marsh is kinda crazy and thought it'd be cool to half bury 10 old Cadillacs in a stretch of land he owns.  Okay, whatever floats your boat, man.  He also has a tendency to put weird street signs in random places around Amarillo... like in people's front yards and under trees in fields.  I don't know.  I guess if I were a helium millionaire (whatever that means) I'd do whatever floated my boat too.

So you may notice that these Cadillacs are entirely covered in graffiti.  Yeah, so ole Stanley encourages people to bring their own spray paint to leave their mark, so to say.  Now while there is one dumpster outside of the gate, there is not a trash can in site around these cars.  Therefore folks just throw their spray cans on the beautiful west Texas farm land.  So this landmark seems pretty trashy to me... litterally.  I wanted to walk around with a trash bag and pick up all the cans, but the smell of spray paint was getting to my head.  It was windy and a few people were leaving their marks on the cars.  There was a woman spraying her kids' names on the hood of one of the cars.  She was doing that while yelling at her kid that he had just stepped in "dog shit."  Nice.  It wasn't even dog shit, it was dried cow manure.  Come on lady, where did you think you were?  The dog park? ha!

Belle was personally offended because she was just there to take in the sight.  She then hightailed it toward the car... pulling us behind her like a sled dog.  I've known for some time now that Belle is "allergic" to the country.  But I thought the "country" was categorized as over grown grass fields in Inola, OK.  Little did I know (until this trip) that Belle considered the farmland of Amarillo as country too.  I think the cars frightened her.  Hell I don't really blame her. They kind of frightened me too.

~Fran

Palo Duro Canyon... Amarillo Part 2

I've been told many times that I needed to go to Palo Duro Canyon .  It's the second largest canyon in the country, second to the Grand Canyon.  Michelle's apartment in Amarillo is only about 20 minutes from Palo Duro.  So what the heck, let's pack a lunch, let's pack the dog, let's go hiking!

If you're thinking of going to Palo Duro you have several options.  You can go for the day (like we did) to hike and picnic, you can bring your honkin' RV and hook it up to one of the hundreds of camping hookups throughout the park, you can backpack, you can rock climb, you can primitive camp....  Mix and match!  There's something for everyone.  The land is just beautiful!

After paying the $5 a head, we stopped at the first look out area.  Belle was a bit scared we'd all slip off the edge of the cliff and hightailed it in the opposite direction.  It was a true test of Michelle's dog control skills lol.

"Okay, but I'm not going near that fence!  Are you guys crazy?!"  Yep, that's what Belle said once Michelle finally turned her back around.  Yep, I quote my dogs and what I think they are saying based on their "facial expressions."  Yep.

And this is the ledge Belle was so frightened of.  Ehhh.  It was pretty pretty!  And it was about 11a.m. so the sun was right in my face.  Shane told me I should have gotten their earlier, around 8 am, to have gotten a better picture.  I said I was on vacay.  Nuff said.

A couple of benches are by the overlook.  There's also some marker talking about Palo Duro.  I was too enthralled with the view to bother reading it though.

Michelle kept telling me she would pull over if I wanted to take pictures.  I'm a fan of pictures on the move.  I did ask her to pull over one time though.  We got a map from the welcome center and were on the look out for a short hike.  The lady at the center said the most popular hike was the Lighthouse Trail, which was 6 miles long.  Yeah, that got us looking for a light hike.  Belle doesn't like to be too active while she's on vacation.

We finally decided to try the Paseo del Rio Trail.  We figured all the trails would lead to a cliff.  This was a very light trail, 2 miles round trip, and it didn't lead to a cliff.  It was pretty well shaded and we were surround by trees most of the hike.  A negative factor was how close it was to the road.  The next time we go, this won't be the trail we choose.

This trail did do what I wanted it to do though.  It wore Belle the plum out.  She likes to pull, I mean lead, when she's hiking.  This meant a lot of sleeping once we got back to the apartment.  Awesome.

The fact that it was 60 degrees in January... well it was rather confusing considering the week before it was 2 degrees in Tulsa.  I even shed my jacket and tied it around my waste during the hike.  It was comfortable when we weren't on the move though.

After the two mile hike, we loaded back in the car to find a sweet spot to eat lunch.

This was our spot.  We decided on the Mesquite Camping Area.  No, we were not campers.  No, picnicking is not technically allowed in camping areas.  No, we were not concerned.  There weren't many campers in this large area.  We were looking for shade and picnic tables.  The site was a pretty sweet camp site, for RV's or tents.  Each site came with a fire pit, pergola, picnic table, and electricity.  Pretty sweet.  And the view.... wow the view.....

It made for some pretty great picnicking, even if it was "illegal" picnicking...  Notice who Belle was attached to during lunch.

Michelle is Belle's best friend.  EVER.

Whatever, I had pringles and grapes and pb&j.....mmmmmmm!

AND this is a sense of the camp sites at the Mesquite Camping Area.  Everything was so clean.  So fresh and so clean.  It may be worth putting up with RVer's to camp in this area.

We had a fabulous time at Palo Duro Canyon.  It was the perfect day to get out and hike.  It was the perfect Saturday for our Girls' Weekend.  While we only spent a few hours at Palo Duro I can't wait to spend an entire weekend the next time.  And the next time we'll be better prepared and better rested.  Palo Duro left us pooped and no good for the rest of the day.  We laid around, watched some quality HGTV, and order sushi take out.  Yes.  Sushi takeout.  We were that lazy.  And it was THAT good!  So our eyes were bigger than our stomaches.... we ended up making sunday lunch out of our leftovers lol.  It really was yummy sushi, but we'll order half of what we ordered this time next time.  If you go there, you must order the monkey balls.  That's all I'm sayin'.  YUM-OH!

Woops, I kind of got off track there.  "But Fran, there's a longhorn above your sushi....."  Oh yeah.....

This was the welcome, or in our case, the good-bye committee at Palo Duro Canyon.  Now if that isn't a good enough reason to return I don't know what is.  That sucker was like 5 times the size of a normal cow.



~Fran