Living in the City

Have I mentioned that we love living in Oklahoma City? We enjoy having so many fun things to do and because of the market, we can find inexpensive ways to do the things we love. For instance, Monday night has become our Fajita Bowling Night. A large group of friends usually joins us at our fave Mexican restaurant for the Fajita Special - $15.99 for double fajitas regularly $23.99. Casa Perico at NW 122nd & Penn is fabulous. It certainly blows Ted's Escondido out of the water. The handmade tortillas, fresh salsa, relish, guacamole, sopapillas and other yummies only add to the fact that Casa Perico definitely makes the best chicken fajitas we've had in OKC. (If you're going for steak, I still have to give props to El Chico which has a lovely steak marinade and uses a more tender cut of beef.) After we fill ourselves on our favorite cuisine, we head over for three hours of all-you-can-bowl for $8 at Heritage Lanes which is virtually next door. You would think that we would be pretty good bowlers by now, but we're still working on our skills.

Last night, as we were winding down we threw up bumpers on a lane and let Lola bowl for the first time. She had such a blast and squealed with excitement. As we left she said, "I'm so excited! I went bowling with an orange ball." We laughed that the color of the ball was important. Orange was the second color she learned. Pink being the first and for quite some time the ONLY color that existed. Randy actually started researching color blindness because he was worried. My assumption is that she is foremost girl and then an Oklahoma State fan. I'm certain this makes her bona fide cowgirl. And we must not forget her love of horses. Another interesting note in accordance with our bowling tradition... a few days ago Lola & I passed the bowling alley and she proclaimed, "That's where I go bowling!" I replied, "Me, too!" and marveled how she recognizes things when we are driving.

Another frequent feature of our life in the city is the cinema at Northpark Mall. Lola has recently proven to be a fun and well-behaved companion at the movies. She loves the popcorn! This particular cinema is our favorite because the tickets are only $1.75 and on Tuesday nights they are only 50 cents!!! Tonight we saw The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. Of course, Lola did fall asleep for part of the movie tonight but last week we saw Speed Racer and Made of Honor. The movies are of course late in their running and we have taken to the habit of waiting for movies to make it to Northpark Mall to catch them. But I finally get to go to the cinema again and for cheap!!

Cheering for the YardDawgz

Last night we went to our first OKC YardDawgz game with Eric & Erin and our friend Nickie. If you aren't familiar, the YardDawgz are an arena football team. We had so much fun. We love football and while this is definitely different than regular football, it certainly captures most of what we love about the sport. The announcer was entertaining and the music and video clips were fun for dancing and laughs. Lola got her groove on with the tunes and she loved the cheerleaders. As usual, she experienced her love/hate relationship with mascots. There were several Dawgz running about and she always wanted to know where they were and showed excitement to see them, until they got close. A couple of Dawgz made it close to us and she climbed over four laps to get away from one of them - even though he was still about four rows away. The OKC YardDawgz played the Amarillo Dusters and OKC won in sudden death overtime. It was a rush of excitement and we are thinking about getting season tickets next year.



Today I'm getting ready for our gathering. Each Sunday evening, we gather with friends to break bread, celebrate Jesus, share the Word, worship and pray. This summer we've been enjoying what we call Open Grill. Everyone brings something to throw on the grill and a side or dessert to share. We always have yummy food and a good time.

My Castle

Lola & Randy were looking through pics on my computer this morning. I saved this picture from somewhere online a while back because it reminded me of my dream estate. I've always said I wanted a big beautiful house with a driveway lined by trees that ended in a circle around a fountain, and peacocks running all around. I can just see my mom rolling her eyes right now.

When this pic scrolled on the screen Lola asked, "What's that?" Randy said, "That's the house your mommy wants."

"I want it. That's my house," Lola exclaimed.

Randy asked, "You want a house with formal gardens and peacocks, too? Well, either you or mommy need to get famous and make us lots of money so we can build that house."

"That's not a house, that's a castle. That's MY castle!" declared Lola.

I guess she knows the difference between our humble house and this somewhat castle-like dwelling.

Laughs with Lola

I promise I'll get into a better groove with this blog. We've had a very busy couple of weeks. I'll try to chronicle them over the next few days instead of creating one huge post that will lose you to boredom. I wanted to tell you about a couple laughs Lola has given us lately. Right now she is sitting next to me with Randy 'in her lap' rocking him, patting him on the back, and singing him a lovely tune. I'm finding it a bit hard to concentrate on this post. But here are the Lola giggles I promised:

-A couple of days ago, I hung up the phone in frustration after dropping the call three times. We've had no house phone for over a week due to Randy's changing of our phone service. Hopefully, we'll have the adapter for our phones very soon; but I digress. Anyhow, Lola is in the habit of asking "What happened?" every time she thinks she's missed something important. I answered her by saying, "Mommy's mad at daddy, but it's ok." Her reply? "No, mommy, don't. Daddy's a good girl!" After I stopped laughing I reassured her that I would forgive him. When Randy came home, I told him this story while she stood by. At the end she said, "That was funny!" Randy may be hoping for an Olympic medalist but he may end up with a comedian.

- Just a few minutes ago, Lola was pretending to put makeup on Randy as he lay in the floor. I watched her as she mimicked my routines and then proceeded to correct her when she pulled on Randy's eyelids and put her finger in his eye. She then did it to herself and again I told her not to do that because it wasn't safe. She said, "MiMi does it." Since she's in the habit of often saying so-and-so does it when I correct her for something, I replied, "No, she doesn't." Randy then pointed out that MiMi wears contacts. I apologized to Lola and she continued to show us how to insert and remove contacts from your eyes. I guess I'm not the only one she mimics.

We've had a great time with Randy's sister Kaylie the last few days. She came on Tuesday with Grandma Carol (Bradley) & Grandpa Wilmer. They and Randy's brother Eric & his lovely girlfriend Erin joined us for a birthday celebration. Randy, Eric and Wilmer all have July birthdays. We took Kaylie home today (Friday) and Lola has already asked for her several times. Kaylie is getting ready to start OSU this fall but I selfishly wish she were going to school here in the metro. She is wonderful with Lola and fun to be around. You can see how much Lola loves her...

Catching Up

I wish we had started this blog long, long ago. I've not been very good about journaling Lola's life or her milestones. However, this blog will probably be about all of our lives together; and you'll guest star at times, since you are such an important part of who we are. We'll be sure to throw in pics & video to liven it up a bit.

I've already been thinking about all the things I want to jot down from just the last two weeks. Lola says the funniest things. She is quite clever and sometimes suprises us with her wit and expanding vocabulary. Here are a few things that have amused us lately.

- Lola recently discovered that her tummy growls. A few weeks ago, she came running to me saying, "Mommy, my tummy said Rawwrrr!" Although, I'm sure she is quite in touch with her hunger pains. We have an open pantry and she is constantly discovering her next snack. Several days later and soon after waking, Lola asked, "Mommy, are you hungry in your belly?" I can't recall how I replied but then I asked her if she was hungry in her belly. She said, "No! I watch Bugs first." She usually watches her favorite show while I prepare her breakfast. I think in her own way she was telling me to get on with the routine.

- Lola recently spent a week with her Nana & Poppy, Aunt Dana, and her Aunt Dee Dee. She would barely say hello to us on the phone and when asked she never wanted to come home. On her last day I called before we were to meet she and Aunt Dee. She didn't want to talk to me. When asked if she wanted to see Mom & Dad, she said no twice. Finally, I had Dee ask her if she wanted to see her MiMi & Pro Pro to which she exclaimed, "Yeah!" Then she grabbed the phone and said to me, "But Mommy, I come right back!" and promptly handed the phone back to Dee.

~About a week ago we took Lola to the dancing fountains in Bricktown. She was in heaven; like her mother she is a water rat. Also like her mom, she is fascinated with horses. She would run around the fountains and as soon as she saw a horse-drawn carriage pass by, she would run to the railing and cry out to the "horsies". I guess a carriage ride is in our future. Our time at the fountains was pretty entertaining - live music, dancing water, horses, a lightning show off in the distance, and the hustle and bustle of Bricktown on a Saturday night. However, Lola was the most entertaining attraction. She kept sipping from the fountains and as one dipped lower to the ground, I saw her bend farther and farther over till she was almost sucking the ground dry. I laughed hysterically as she chased that fountain to the ground. In between her antics, she kept saving me from imaginary spiders on the rock where I was sitting. I had swiped a spider off her chair at MiMi's earlier that day and I suppose she wanted to return the heroic gesture. Our favorite moment happened when she sat on a fountain and jumped up exclaiming, "Oh gosh, there are bubbles in my butt!"

- When asked how old she is, Lola always answers four. Not because that is the only number she knows; she actually knows she is two. However, she has an agenda. A while back she asked Randy about his tattoo and said she wanted one. Randy told her she could choose to have one when she was older. Her reply... "When I'm four?" Randy said maybe and ever since then her answer is four.

Isn't she adorable?