Great summer weekend!

Well, since I turned in my two stories last Wednesday, Claire and I can go back to summertime relaxing! Tbey were both for Oklahoma Today: I had one on an Ardmore restaurant, and one that was a collective of TWENTY-FIVE restaurants across Oklahoma. So I got a great meal for the first one, and a ton of phone calls and no free food for the second one! But as I posted on FB, maybe it's better that way--I had to describe so many dishes in detail, it was kind of like tasting them all without actually eating them! I can definitely say that I want to try a few in person though, including the Fancy Mac & Cheese at Iron Starr BBQ in OKC, the fried chicken at Eischen's in Okarche, and the pasta at Pete's Place in Krebs (I've been there before, but it's been a long time, and writing about it made me want to go back!).

Last week, we enjoyed a visit from Holly, Jenny, and Mattie while their parents went on their yearly anniversary trip. We went swimming, but the water in Mom's pool is like a bathtub, and the sun was beating down so hard it wasn't even enjoyable until like 6 p.m. But we still had some good old Keep Away on the Diving Board fun (a Shipman/Pannell family original!). Claire has gotten to where she really enjoys going underwater! She likes to jump to me, and I let her kind of fall underwater for a second before I pull her up. Might look like torture, but she wants to do it again and again! She also loves sliding down the slide at Mom's house--with Mommy of course.

Holly spent the night with us Thursday night, and we stayed up way too late watching movies. Claire really enjoyed watching movies with Holly when she woke up the next morning, too! That always makes her so happy to see that someone who was at our house the night before is still there the next morning. Tyler stayed at our house for two nights the week before last while Mom and Grant were in Alaska, and she thought that was so neat--Ty and Jay together read Claire her books both nights.

Friday night, we went out to Madill to the Edmonds/Green family reunion we've been crashing for a few years now. The man who Jay always fishes with on that private lake has a ton of his wife's family down for a week every summer, and we usually go out one night. We went fishing off their dock this time, and kept catching these little perch that Claire loved to throw back in the water. Jay would try to get her to hold them by the mouth like a "real" fisherman, but she just liked to grab them around the body and throw them in. Then we went on a nighttime boat ride with some of the fam on this little pontoon that they call "The Love Boat."

Friday, Claire and I went to the library and farmer's market, and then in the afternoon when Jay got home, we went to Sherman to eat and do the last of my VBS shopping. I'm in charge of the outdoor games this year, as I was last year, and it starts tomorrow! Our church just revived our VBS last year, so it's fairly small, just three nights and for three-year-olds to third-graders, but one- and two-year-olds whose moms are teaching in the VBS stay in the nursery the whole time. So Claire and I will be busy this week, at least until Thursday.

We had a great service tonight as part of our Summer Singing Series, where Layne Heitz did a combination song service and lesson, talking about the purposes of different kinds of songs--encouragement to ourselves and one another, evangelism, and of course, praising God in different ways. He talked about two of the Greek words for worship: Proskuneo, to blow a kiss to in reverence, so a very personal, emotional kind of worship, or Latreuo, to serve or offer gifts, so the "bringing a sacrifice of praise" kind of worship.

After church, we went fishing at my Uncle Gary's pond. They weren't biting tonight though. I think I actually caught one, and then Jay had three jump off as he was reeling them in, and that happened to me twice. We actually bought Claire a junior fishing rod Saturday, and she was happy to reel it in a few times, but then since we weren't catching any like we had Friday, she just started wandering between Jay and I, finding stuff to pick up and throw in the water.

Here's to a great week of VBS, and this weekend, America's birthday and a big day of family and fun!

Not feeling too good!

I think Claire must be cutting a molar; she's been running around a 101 temp since last night. I started asking her if she felt hot or sick throughout the day just to gauge how she felt, so now she's started saying it. "I hot, Mama. I sick." It's so sad! This evening, I was trying to do a quick phone interview while she sat on the floor reading a book. We had talked about her being quiet before I made the call. ("Mommy's needs to make a phone call; what do you need to do?" Claire: "I be ki-et.") But during the call, she climbs up on the couch next to me and sits with her head on my shoulder. No harm done so far. Then she starts to cough a little. Then she turns her head and coughs right into my ear, and right into the phone. Then she says, again, right into the phone: "I cough, Mama. I need med-cine." The lady I was interviewing at this fancy restaurant goes, "Uh-oh, I heard that!" Oh, the perils of being a work-at-home mom!

Here's hoping Claire's little tooth comes through so she can go back to normal. Tonight we ran over to Matt and Kim's house to drop off stuff for their garage sale, and I told Claire several times that we wouldn't get to stay long because we didn't want to get Katelyn sick, like Claire. So she was so good when we left after only a little bit--just frowning and quietly saying, "I sick, Mama. Don't get Tatie sick." But on the way home, she started saying, "I see Tatie in morning." I don't know where she got that! But we're going to try to go hang out during the garage sale if Claire feels up to it.

Five years of marriage today!

Five fun memories from Jay and my marriage (all numbered one b/c Blogger is weird):

1. Playing two-on-two volleyball on our honeymoon with a couple from Coleman, OK. (They had the same wedding day AND the same honeymoon package in Puerta Vallarta!) Jay and I usually make it a point to NOT play on the same team in sports or games, because we have different competitive spirits, shall we say. We're both competitive, but in sports, Jay thinks I'm not trying hard enough when I do badly, and I think the same of him in games. But in the past five years, we've learned to compete together, I think. This year, we actually played a game of Nertz as partners without getting mad and won a series of volleyball matches as a team.
   

1. My first Thanksgiving with the Maucks in Kansas: Jay shot a deer, but was the last one in the deerwoods, and this was at about oh, noon, when we're CARVING THE TURKEY! So his dad, cousin, and uncle wolfed down some food, drove out to meet him, and processed the deer so that Jay got back to his darling wife after I had been hanging with his family--some of whom I was meeting for the first time--for about six hours. We drove home with a deer head and an ice chest full of meat, along with all our Black Friday purchases of couse. Tight squeeze.

1. Jay and I got our first dog, a full-grown stray yellow lab that we named Beau. He was well-trained in fetch, sit, and come, so we wondered at first why he was a stray. Then he jumped our fence, repeatedly, and we figured it out. One neighbor told us he put him in his six-foot fence while he tried to get a hold of us, only for Beau to jump it. Someone else told us they saw him push the fence latch up with his nose. That dog knew come, but he did not know stay. So we gave him to another couple who loved him, but had to keep him in their house to keep him at home.
   

1. Going fishing with Jay the first few times: He comes to the understanding that I will NOT participate in his usual four-hour fishing excursions unless I get a padded seat and a book. To him, if you can't go for at least four hours, it's not worth going. To me, if I have to sit on a metal seat for four hours with no entertainment besides casting and reeling, I'd rather jump in the lake. Jay gives me the "pity reel," when he gets a fish on, doesn't tell me, and then asks me to hold his rod for a second, watching my delight when I realize I caught a fish.
   

1. And of course, the birth of our first child, Claire! That same year, Jay and Preston bought a restaurant and I began my short stint as a high school teacher, so it was so busy! But Claire was the uniting blessing through it all: she never fails to make us laugh and smile and work together.
   

Fun times with cousins!

Audrey, Kerrigan, and Carson came down this week to hang out for a few days, and the kids had a great time playing together. Katelyn came over and got in on the action, too.

I don't know why playing in the dirt pile was so much fun on such a breezy day. They were rubbing dirt out of their eyes half the time.


Riding four-wheelers is always a must-do at Mamaw and Papaw's. This is actually a kid-size four-wheeler that you don't have to shift. Don't think it's made for three passengers--except in the case of expert driver Papaws!

Fun in the slip-n-slide--wearing their clothes! They had their swimsuits on earlier, but Mamaw turned it on when they weren't in them, and Kerrigan went over and started drinking the water squirting up. The other girls followed suit, and then Carson, and finally Obi, the new puppy! They were all soaking wet by the time it was all said and done.

Kerrigan was the most serious about getting drinks!

Summertime, and the living's easy...

YUM!

Don't just laugh Tyler, save her! Claire was acting really silly this day, kept jumping up and down on the steps, going under, and then coming up laughing! That's why Tyler was just laughing at her.


It's Saturday, and OF COURSE Claire wakes up earlier than she has all week: 7:15! I know for many moms, this is actually late, but Claire usually wakes up around 7:45-8:00. And OF COURSE I decided to stay up late reading because she had gone to sleep fairly late, around 9:30. No such luck with the whole sleeping-in-on-Saturday thing. Oh well! Every day is a blessing, so might as well get up and enjoy it, right? So far today, we've read our new library books (I already finished mine!), watched cartoons, taken a joint shower, and baked cookies. Claire already knows it's her job to stir, unwrap the butter, and of course, lick a beater and spoon (I still reserve the right to one beater!).

Jay rolled out of bed pretty soon after Claire came in our room, and got a phone call from Nana, asking if he was at the job site yet! Ha! It's so funny to me that he got that call. Last night, Jay arranged for Nana and Grandad to come look at his homes in Calera to get some ideas for the kind of home they want Jay and Grant to build for them. So at 7:20, Nana called to tell him they were already in Durant! I guess they were excited to get going on the house! We're all excited about Nana and Grandad's new house; we hope to start on it this summer!

So Claire and I have had a great summer week, with shopping, a play date at the park, a trip to the library and farmers market, and an afternoon at Mom's pool! It doesn't get much better than that! Play time's over for me for a while though; this week I also got two story assignments, both due in two weeks! Actually, it really won't affect our schedule that much. I usually just make phone calls and write in the afternoons during Claire's nap and post-nap milk and TV, and then get a babysitter whenever I have to make a trip and also just before my deadline. I love my part-time job! I just sometimes wish it was a little more regular. It seems like when it rains, it pours! I'm sort of trying right now to find some sort of monthly paid writing assignment.

Anyway, we're both looking forward to this afternoon, when Claire will go four-wheeling and fishing with Daddy, and I'm going to go see Up with Mom and Ty (and maybe a few other fam members, not sure yet). Hope you're having a GREAT summer, too!

Claire's favorite things to say right now, some stinker and some adorable:

• "No! By self!"
• "Happy birthday to Kerrigan!"
• "HIJKLMNOP" (She usually sings this and Kerrigan's birthday song together! Have tried to get this on video several times, and she has yet to cooperate, although she has been singing this on and off all day for a week!)
• "What you doing, Mama?"
• "What's that?"
• "Don't want to...[anything I want her to do]"
  
• And of course, the perennial two-year-old favorite: "MINE!"

Fun Edmond weekend!

I love weekend getaways! We should plan them more often, as we usually just wait until we have some specific event to go somewhere for, and then sometimes make a weekend of it.

This weekend, it was Kerrigan's second birthday party! But we managed to squeeze in a bunch of other activities around it! On the way to Edmond, we ate in Norman with my sister, and then went over to Jay's fishing buddy Eric's house, as they have a new baby boy, in addition to their 3-year-old and 6-year-old boys. We finally made it to Kyle and Audrey's around 9:30, and Claire was still wide awake! Eric's boys had her revved up with plenty of swinging, sliding, golf, and soccer.

The next morning, Jay and Kyle went golfing with some friends, while Claire and I went to the zoo with Amanda. Sadly, I didn't have my camera all weekend, so I don't have any pics of that. Luckily, Audrey got plenty of good ones at the party later, though, and some of those are below. Anyway, we had fun at the zoo, despite the heat, which kept many of the animals hidden and/or motionless. Claire could have watched those stationary alligators for a lot longer than Amanda and I wanted to! Actually, the bears were fairly active, since they have a pool to swim in. We saw a baby black bear taking a dip, and one grizzly kept pacing back and forth, coming within inches of us, on the other side of his glass wall! And the new dinosaur exhibit was really cool. Life-size, animatronic dinosaurs, where the kids can actually push buttons to make them roar and move different body parts! Claire was a little scared at first, but she got into it pretty quick.

The party was fun, and Claire loved playing outside with her cousins! With a swing set, a trampoline, a slip 'n' slide, and a kiddie pool, Claire, Kerrigan, Carson, Zack, and Abby went from one thing to the next!



We even got to go fishing in Kyle and Audrey's pond, where the fish are practically tame! They're fed and fished almost daily, so they appear totally comfortable with getting caught for a short time--literally, we would drop a line in the water and just watch 10-15 perch swimming around the worm, trying to grab it without getting hooked, and then within five to ten seconds, we'd have one on! It's the perfect fishing experience for kids! Jay even caught Big Boy, one of the big catfish Paul put out there a while back.

After we left Kyle and Audrey's we had to fuel up, and we love stopping in at Pops, the new Route 66 attraction just down the road from their house. Even though it's always crazy-busy on Saturdays with motorcyclists and families, we can't resist that huge drink selection! I got a vanilla cream soda, Claire got a banana milk, and Jay got a Dr. Pepper icee. We could have gone crazier, but we have learned in the past that sometimes it's best to play it safe!