Pretty in Pink

Here are some recent pics of my dogwood tree from my front yard. I must say that I love, love, love spring in Georgia. We ate dinner on our deck last night, a wonderful meal of grilled shrimp and veggies and pasta salad, followed by cupcake pops made by Roxy and me. After dinner, Scott and I just sat watching the trees grow leaves and watching the girls play "Blind Man, Blind Man" on the trampoline. Life was good, pretty, and peaceful.

Real Women Wear Waders

Scott took his day off today ( be sure to praise him for this, because he mostly works his off days) and we ate breakfast at our favorite biscuit place where everyone is welcome, especially old men wearing leather chaps and riding their Harleys. After a fabulous biscuit, we headed out to a fishing hole in Bartow County. We knew we were in the right spot when we saw a pickup truck with Confederate stars-and-bars mounted on the front bumper and a state fair-looking guy wearing a Kid Rock concert t-shirt carrying a fishing pole.

We got skunked, but the day was incredible. No bugs, no kids, no fish - but the creek was crystal clear and I got to wear my waders.

Easter , Roxy Style

Roxy drew this picture last summer on our road trip to Georgia. I found it with my 2008 tax documents (please don't ask - moving is such a beast) and I had to smile at it. Let me translate: "My butt hurts" and "What?", but notice that bunny #2 is missing an ear.

Roxy learned this routine from her father who must have been channelling Bart Simpson. While her spelling has vastly improved, the humor will always remain...

Let's Call It Even

I am back to the real Franks world now. No more leisurely visits, no more birthday celebrations for Roxy, no more 850 mile drives in pounding wind. We had a wonderful Easter Sunday together, a great church service, and life is back to normal: homework, Mount Laundry, and getting even.

I managed to wreck my husband's NCAA championship game night without even knowing it. While I was in Oklahoma, my husband was pacing the house, twiddling his thumbs, and feeling so confused about what to do with his life. He actually decided to watch a ball game on TV - for the first time in years, I think. And wouldn't you know, but I had two movies recording at the same time - one on Lifetime and one on the Hallmark channel. It is a man's worst nightmare. Fortunately for me, Scott barely knows how to operate the TV remote, and he certainly does not know how to operate the DVR, so he could not override my recordings. Scott just gave up and went to bed instead of watching a sappy Nora Roberts movie. Poor guy.

So now that I am home, not everything is back to normal. For some unknown reason, Scott decided to tweak the settings on our computer to soup up the parental control features. It turns out that I can now check email, post to my blog, and that's about it. No Facebook, no game sites, no pleasant internet diversions. Scott also put my cell phone charger in an unknown location, so no cell phone service for me.

I think he got even.

Reflections on Oklahoma

The girls and I are enjoying our stay in Oklahoma.  We have noticed many things this trip:

1.  We will never miss wind.  One day in Georgia we attempted to fly kites without real success.  Here, be prepared to say bye-bye to that kite because when it goes up, it keeps going up to heaven.

2.  All the roads in Georgia are better than the Oklahoma ones.  I don't know if rednecks know road construction better than Okies, but all the roads in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and even Arkansas are better than Oklahoma roads.  Get that stimulus money quick, OK.  You need it.

3.  It's official now - we have started adapting to our new environment.  The way things look here is so different from where we live now.  Oklahoma is about memories now.

4.  We really miss so many people, we cannot possibly put it into words.  This trip is maturing my daughters because now they have the knowledge of 'moving on', good and bad.

5.  Hideaway Pizza will always be my favorite, hands down.  You lucky people here in the sooner state should appreciate it and appreciate it often.

Death of a TV Show?

I like TV, much to my husband's disappointment. I'm not a fan of reality shows, I do not watch any version of CSI, and I gave up on soaps in college. However, I love cable stations and I will pretty much watch any movie on the Hallmark Channel, even though I know they are not worth the trouble. One thing I do like is watching people doing creative things on cable: cooking, cleaning, decorating, gardening, sewing, etc. I was saddened to see a new show on Bravo, the Not the Project Runway show. I saw the ad last night, and the show has an unmemorable name and it is hosted by Isaac Mizrahi, but all I can comprehend is that it is Not Project Runway. I have an attachment to Project Runway and I knew that the future of that show was in limbo because of a sale to Lifetime, followed by lawsuits and counter lawsuits. But how can they do this? As I was thinking about how disappointed I was, I realized that maybe my television should not be my best friend and it's time to get a life. Or a least a new book to read...

Darby the Happy Camper

Darby came home from an overnight field trip with her classmates. The camping experience was a good one and she does not seem to be permanently scarred from the two hour hike, the scraped knee, and the camp food. They played games, held snakes, told scary stories in the cabin, and hiked, hiked, hiked. I wish I had pictures, because the most remarkable thing was that Darby's hair wasn't half as bad as I thought it would be.

Darby said the orienteering portion of the trip was kind of boring. The kids are in the woods, each small group is given a compass, and they have to collect pieces of quotes at each location. Being the human equivalent of an encyclopedia, Darby already knew all the quotes. Who knew that memorizing random Chinese proverbs and Native American sayings could turn out to be a bore...