All Posts Tagged With: "Karla"

6:50pm, Edmond Santa Fe High School auditorium
Karla and Ashley wait for the start of Sarah’s induction ceremony for DECA.

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7:15pm, Edmond Santa Fe High School auditorium
Sarah (fourth from the right) takes the officer’s oath during the induction ceremony for DECA. In her first year in DECA, the membership voted her to be Reporter for the club. The club’s adviser speaks very highly of Sarah and believes she has a promising future in the organization.

(Yes, yes, I know… the photo is horrible. Someone… cough, cough… was too lazy to bring his real camera to the event and take decent photos. What kind of a father would do that?)

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* Taken with my iPhone

11:59am, Richey’s Grill in the Oklahoma Tower, Downtown Oklahoma City
Karla joins me for an impromptu lunch date, an instant cure to the Monday malaise. (The gorgeous mid-day weather certainly helped act as an antidote to the Monday-induced mental dreariness.)

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* Taken with my iPhone. Standard disclaimer about the photography quality applies.

I’ve been tagged a couple of times this week for “getting-to-know-you” type memes. While I don’t mind being tagged, I generally don’t tag others unless I know them really well. So, right off the bat, I will violate one of the rules of this particular meme, which are:

1. Link to the person that tagged you. (No problem)
2. Post the rules on your blog. (Certainly)
3. Write six random things about you in your blog post. (Gotcha)
4. Tag six people in your post. (Nope)
5. Let each person know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog. (Not-gonna-do-it)
6. Let the tagger know your entry is up. (Okie dokie)

Being the rule-breaking maverick that I am, I won’t follow all these rules. But, I can follow Rule #1, which is to link to the person who tagged me, which was Karla, who was tagged herself by BritGal Sarah (a bonus link for Sarah!). I followed Rule #2, as you can see above. And I have no problem following Rule #3, which is the heart of the meme.
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Six Random Things About Me:

1. I’m quite odd — and proud of it. My weirdness and child-like foolishness seems to be a source of continual entertainment for my daughters and occasional consternation of my very patient wife.
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2. I’m a fan of many different genres of music, movies and cultural entertainment. My music collection spans from Bon Jovi to Eminem to Luciano Pavarotti and everything in between — minus the bulk of country music (although I do have the Dixie Chicks and a couple other country songs, but they are the exception rather than the rule). My favorite movies span The GodFather to Oh Brother Where Art Thou to Star Wars to Austin Powers as well as documentaries. I enjoy musicals, art shows, car shows and air shows. My tastes in entertainment probably reflect the complexity of my personhood.
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3. In our household, I am the one who cries most often at movies, television shows and theater performances.
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4. I’m generally anti-social, except for small gatherings of people I know well.
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5. My favorite adult beverage is the Long Beach Iced Tea.
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6. In my college years, during one summer, I was a funeral home assistant, which meant I helped from start to finish — from picking up the decedent from the hospital, long-term care facility, home or accident scene to assisting in embalming and preparing the body for the funeral and burial to assisting in the coordination of the funeral to supervising the final burial procedure. The hours were horrible and it wasn’t always the most fun, but it was fascinating and I wouldn’t give up the experience for the world.

Now that I’ve finished Rules #1-#3, I’ll now complete Rule #6; but, Rules #4 and #5 just aren’t gonna get done. Partially because I’m a rebel, but mostly because I’m too lazy!

My blog’s soulmate is the blog of my soulmate. Karla’s been blogging for awhile on Blogger with her blog named Rose Cottage Lane. Because of some of Blogger’s limitations, I offered to move her to a WordPress-based blog hosted on my own web server. She agreed and I worked on her new blog over the weekend.

Because we are not only married soulmates, but our very best friends, I thought it would be fun for her blog to look similar to mine, but with her own brand. She liked my blog title, so we worked on coming up with something similar for her. After several different options were considered, Karla settled on “Loving Life in Oklahoma.” It seemed like a perfect complement to my blog and a genuine reflection on her state of mind.

So, without further ado, I am honored (and very proud) to introduce this blog’s soulmate and companion:

As I mentioned in the last post, our family went out on a date night to celebrate Karla and I’s anniversary. We went to the very nice, upper-scale restaurant, Redrock Canyon Grill, that sits on the shore of Lake Hefner.

First of all, the weather was picture perfect. There were blue skies, but with enough high-level clouds to diffuse the harshness of the setting sun. The temperature was warm enough to wear short sleeves and even shorts, but wasn’t hot at all. As a very large man with lots of extra insulation, I can get hot pretty easily, but I was quite comfortable. It is still early enough in the summer season that the bugs were minimal, apart from a few annoying gnat clouds hovering along the shore of the lake.

As we waited to be seated, we stood out on the outside patio and deck overlooking the lake. Even though there were a lot of people waiting, it didn’t seem overcrowded. The air was perfect, the views were great and the company was even better! Continued

Sixteen wonderful and amazing years. In some ways, it seems like only yesterday. In other ways, it seems like forever.

Yesterday, Karla and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary. Now, I have to admit that our celebration wasn’t quite as spectacular as one might expect for a “Sweet Sixteen” milestone. Before she left for work yesterday, Karla left me a gift and anniversary card where she knew I would find it — the bathroom. I had a plant with a “Happy Anniversary” mylar balloon to her workplace so she would hopefully feel a little extra special. In the evening, we went to a nice, upper-scale restaurant, Redrock Canyon Grill, that sits on the shore of Lake Hefner. We shared our date with our two pride-and-joys, Sarah and Ashley. (More about our dinner date, with more photos, in a later post.)

I heard it said once — and I can’t remember from whom — that marriage can either be heaven on earth or hell on earth. Well, I’ve seen both. Some of my friends and family have seen marriage be more like hell on earth. Other friends and family have marriages that are more like heaven on earth. And many seem to be stuck in a stale, dispassionate, obligatory relationship that’s not really hell on earth, but certainly doesn’t seem to be heaven on earth.

I can state unequivocally that my marriage with Karla has been and continues to be heaven on earth. I love her more now than when we first got married, and I loved her a lot then. Marriage has been more than I ever thought it could be. Yes, there have been tough times, but they only made our marriage and love for each other stronger. We each have seen the worst in each other and our commitment never wavered; in fact, the other’s unfailing love often helped us triumph over our weaknesses and overcome our “worst.”

Do we have a perfect marriage. Hardly. But we have a marriage I wouldn’t give up for the world. We are not only husband and wife, we are very best friends. I can’t imagine my life without her. I hope I never have to live it without her (although I know that in all likelihood, one of us will eventually face that inevitability). I cherish each day I’m with her. The sight of her — the mere thought of her — still brings a smile to my face and makes me all atwitter inside.

I love you, Karla, mon amour. Thank you for sixteen wonderful, amazing and memories-filled years. I look forward to each and every year ahead. Happy anniversary!

You’ve heard of the 25 days of Christmas, right? Well, I’ve started a new tradition with our family of the five days of Cinco de Mayo! It started on Thursday, May 1st, when I demanded my print vendor take me to lunch at my favorite Mexican restaurant downtown, La Luna. (It helps that Karla is now works at that print vendor and works directly in support of my sales rep!)

Saturday, as part of our family day downtown (of which I’ll be posting more about in a series of posts in the next couple of days), we went to one of our favorite Mexican restaurants in Bricktown, Chelino’s…

Mmmmmmm. Doesn’t all that look good? It’s making me hungry just looking at it. See my fajitas in the lower right portion of the picture? I could just reach right into that photo and grab me a bite. I can smell them as if they were sitting in front of me. It’s rare that I am disappointed in a meal at Chelino’s and this day was no exception.

As has become a tradition anytime we go anywhere to eat and I have a camera handy, I made sure to catch Sarah putting something into her mouth. Below, Sarah pops another of her poppers into her mouth as Ashley enjoys her whatever it was she was eating.

Tonight, our family wraps up our five-day culinary celebration with another Mexican meal. Five straight days of eating Mexican cuisine — or at least the very Americanized Tex-Mex variant — and I haven’t tired of it yet.

So I’m embracing my love for Mexican culture, the Mexican people (to which I am related by marriage), Mexican destinations (like my beloved Cozumel) and Mexican cuisine (including the Tex-Mex variants) with enthusiasm (and gluttony) during our family’s own five-day celebration of Cinco de Mayo!

Maybe next year, we can go to Mexico to celebrate the holiday!

Last Saturday, our family spent some time visiting Oklahoma History Center. It’s the first time we’ve been since they opened the 215,000 square-foot facility across from the Capital building a few years ago. The center’s materials boast the museum’s “Smithsonian-quality exhibits” with “2,000 artifacts reflecting Oklahoma’s inspiring and adventurous past.” I’m not sure that I would compare it to the Smithsonian, but it was interesting and educational.

There are four main galleries inside the museum — one dedicated to Native American history and the other three exploring Oklahoma’s rich and diverse history and culture. There is also an exhibit about Oklahoma’s contribution to space exploration, including the Gemini 6 Capsule display. The impressive great hall has replica of the famous “Winnie Mae” airplane flown by aviation pioneer and Oklahoma native Wiley Post. There is a new exhibit that will open this week — “Field, Forest & Stream: The History of Oklahomans and the Outdoors.”

There are several exhibits outside the museum, but it was a little chilly on Saturday so we didn’t explore those, except for the sculpture at the entrance of the museum. Continued

“To Grandmother’s house we go…” (© Brad Neese. All rights reserved.)

The fam in the van on their way to grandma’s for a visit and play day for the dogs. Continued