Going to Pops

Friday afternoon we took off to my parents house to spend the rest of the weekend. They are redoing their kitchen, and my dad had installed part of the cabinets. It looks really, really good! We visited Ken's Pizza for my favorite Pepperoni & Mushroom Thin Crust pizza with Alpine Dressing on the side. Then we went to the new Super Wal-Mart that opened there in March. I did not feel like I was in Chandler any longer when I walked in! It was nuts!

Saturday, we made plans to go to Okla City so I could visit a store called Gordman's that my mom loves, loves, loves! It was a really cool store, and if I had lots of spare money, I would have brought home tons of my favorite country and americana decor! We stopped by Mimi's Cafe for a late lunch/brunch and then headed to a couple of other stores before heading back home.

My dad decided to bypass the Turnpike and take Route 66 home from the city. He kept trying to describe this new restaurant/tourist spot in Arcadia called Pops. Nothing prepared us for the real thing, though! It is essentially a gas station, convenient store and restaurant (think Target snack bar) with a pop bottle theme that is a huge tourist trap. They have thousands of pop bottles all over the store and had some interesting flavors that you could buy: Route 66 Root Beer, Round Barn Root Beer, Outlaw Orange Creme, Route 66 Black Cherry and Jack Black's Orange Stash to name a few. We were very surprised by the number of people crammed into this little space...it was very amusing to me!

Sunday, we headed back home and picked Chloe up from her vacation. Now, we just have to get back into the routine of things before school starts up in two weeks!

My Hometown the Series, Part 2

This is the house where I spent most of my growing up years. Actually, that isn't quite right, I'd say I spent just over half of my growing up years there, now that I really think about it. When I was born, we lived in a 3 bedroom, 1 bath house in the country. I know, most of you probably think that all of Chandler is "the country", but this house was about 2 miles off the main highway...actually in the country. We had about 4 acres of land with 2 ponds that my dad and I would fish in occassionally. We had blackberry bushes, peach trees, a garden and pecan trees. We had several dogs and a couple of siamese kitties. It was really fun. Most of my childhood memories are of that house and just playing outside all day long and catching fireflies at night. We had a couple of trees that sat at the top of our driveway, and my dad put in a monkey swing for me that we had bought on our vacation in Virginia. So fun!!!

Well, one day in early January when I was in the third grade, my mom and I were on our way home from a Brownie meeting, and our house was on fire! It didn't look all that bad, and my sisters, brother and parakeet made it out of the house just fine. One of my sister's boyfriends kept going back into the house and getting things out of the front room for us....some pictures, coffee table, letter jacket. I remember that most of all. We spent the night at my aunt's house.....9 of us crammed into her little 2 bedroom, 1 bath house! We were notified during the night that the firefighters made two more trips out to our house and on the third trip, they couldn't save anything. Yep, the whole thing burned to the ground! Of course as a little girl, the most important loss for me was my toys....spefically a baby doll....Happy Baby...I had gotten less than a month before for Christmas! My mom let me buy her at Wal-Mart and all was right in the world again! We got so many donations from everyone in town, it was really quite overwhelming!

We found a little rental house that got us by. My mom came to me one day and asked how I would like to live next door to one of my friends. I was ecstatic! So, we moved in February to the house in the picture. We thought we were uptown to be able to live in a house that was "in town"! It had 3 bedrooms and 1 1/2 baths and a garage!! Woohoo! ;o) I had to share a small bedroom with my two teenaged sisters until my dad finished out the garage for a room for them. For my birthday that year, my parents held a scavenger hunt for me that led to a brand new bike! That is one of my favorite memories in that house!

Anyway, we have all since moved out (and back and out, etc)....gotten married had lots of kids and now my parents are finally redoing their house! I can't wait to see what they come up with! It is so nice to have a home to go home to when you need it!

Whew, that got emotional for me there! Anyway, like I said, I'll just be playing this by ear, so I hope you all enjoy it!

My Hometown the Series, Part 1

First things first....Bill and I both grew up in a small town in Oklahoma called Chandler. It is located on Historic Route 66 about halfway between Oklahoma City and Tulsa. When we lived there, the population was around 2000 people, that has since grown to over 2800. I plan to talk about the landmarks and events that marked our lives, so I made a map to help you follow along. I am sure there are many, many things I left off that map, but it will get us started.....

I have also found a few links, if you are interested in learning more about the town:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandler,_Oklahoma#Demographics
• http://www.chandlerok.com/index.php
• http://www.city-data.com/city/Chandler-Oklahoma.html

I hope you all enjoy this trek through my hometown!

Merry Christmas, Papa!

Today we went and celebrated Christmas with Bill's dad by meeting him for breakfast. Since we are on our trip to Okla to visit my parents, he agreed to drive up and meet us at a restaurant here in Chandler.

The restaurant we ate at is called B's and is located in the Econo Lodge Motel.

We enjoyed omelettes, french toast, eggs and conversation. However, since watching Kitchen Nightmares with Gordon Ramsay, I must point out that he would have a field day in this restaurant, especially with the daily specials that are written in shoe polish on the glass wall inside the restaurant! Sorry, didn't get a picture of that one. You may just have to visit it to believe it!

Chandler High School Class of 1992 Rulz!!

Or so we thought when we were actually in 1992! ;o) We celebrated our 15 year reunion last weekend and although I am glad it is over, I know that I will miss everyone so much!! I was so busy, that I didn't get many pictures, but I just had to share these pictures of our parade float! I thought we did an outstanding job, but we did not win! I guess we will have to bring it for our 20th!! Btw, Bill, Sydney, Hayley, Emyley and I made the big sign on the front!