Last night in our old house. Bunk bed & toddler bed already packed on the truck.
The girls drew pictures for our mail lady. They will miss her! Sally drew "a whole lot a balloons."
Mike is a master packer! (When I told him he should be a professional mover, he glared at me. I think we'll stick to dentistry.)
Picking flowers in the empty lot across the street from our new house. The girls are in heaven!
Swimming in the community pool around the corner. Mom and the girls are in heaven!
Playing in the new sandbox (I love craigslist!). A little bit more heaven.
A gift from Mariah.
Dancing in the rain.
A pretty wicked storm was headed our way. We pulled the girls out of bed and hunkered down in the bathroom. Sally slept through the whole thing. (Our neighbors have a storm shelter and have kindly agreed to share if needed; we didn't feel this storm warranted being underground. The bathroom was good enough.) This was the same storm system that, a couple hours earlier, had put down the largest tornado ever recorded (EF5, 2.6 miles wide). It lifted a couple miles directly west of our old house. So thankful we moved the weekend we did instead of waiting until June 1. Folks in our old neighborhood lost power for a couple days, and there was a lot of damage to roofs, fences, etc.
During nap one day, Sal decided sticking beads up her nose might stop her hiccups. (She came by the idea honestly; she had seen Mike stick tissues in his nose to stop his allergy-induced sneezing attacks.) Luckily, she has a dad with a very steady hand and a mom with a handy ear-wax tool. She was a really good sport.
After 2 weeks of packing and almost 2 weeks of unpacking, we were all ready for a break. Thursday and Friday, we left the stacks of boxes and got out of the house for some much needed family time. On Thursday, we went to the zoo. It was absolutely beautiful, perfect weather. Cool breeze (very unusual this time of year) and perfect warm-but-not-hot temperature. (No pictures of the zoo.) Then we picked up the letter with Mike's DENTAL LICENSE NUMBER!! And then went to the capitol building. The first thing Mariah said when she saw the building was, "It's like the 'feed the birds' building in Mary Poppins!" So they needed a picture sitting on the "feed-the-bird steps."
I love Oklahoma! The 10 Commandments are displayed at the state capitol building. Mike and the girls went up to the 4th floor while I stayed downstairs to take their picture.
The girls also wanted their picture with this statue lady.
Then we headed to dinner at Pops, a famous pit stop/restaurant on Route 66. They have every color and flavor of soda pop imaginable! Even peanut butter & jelly (which I hear is pretty gross).
The girls were pretty excited about choosing their own bottle of soda. E and S both chose peaches and cream; M chose pink grapefruit. I got a real-fruit raspberry, and Mike went with a good old orange cream soda.
We figured out that Elaine and Sally have NEVER had a carbonated drink (poor, deprived children). Sally pretended to like it. Elaine did not.
On Friday we went to the Sam Noble Museum on OU Campus. They're offering free admission for the whole month of June to give tornado victims a place to clear their minds and unwind. The girls loved digging for dinosaur bones.
Sally fell on the way home from the pool and wanted her sore documented.
Friday night, we had the opportunity to host some choir kids traveling through OKC on their way home to Georgia. They were not members of the LDS church, and we were able to share our testimonies with them and teach them quite a bit about our beliefs and the restoration of the Gospel (until 1a.m.). They were great girls (and a counselor). Our girls were so excited to have visitors when they woke up in the morning. One of the girls is named Elaine, which was especially exciting.
So, we're still getting unpacked and settled, but we love our house and neighborhood. We had our first non-combined sacrament meeting today (just with our ward). They've been combining the meetings so people can go help clean up the tornado zone. Mike and I spoke, which was a bit intimidating. Such is life.
Mike starts work tomorrow! Michael George, DDS!
