Kitchen Re-do: My RED Kitchen

I am HAPPY to announce that we FINALLY finished our kitchen re-do project.  It only took us 1 1/2 years but who is counting?

We scraped and peeled wallpaper, floated the walls, painted the walls and ceiling, painted the island and decorated.  Yes, all that took 1 1/2 years but again, who is counting?

So here is the before pic.  It was actually the pic that was online when it was on the market.  Note the country blue wallpaper (and it had the 80's goose border too).  Lovely, huh?

And here is the "almost" final product!  We have added some things on the top of the cabinets since I took this pic but for the most part this is it!  It was a big commitment painting it red (I know) but I have wanted a RED kitchen for a long time and I had bought a lot of the red things a long time ago and just waiting for my red kitchen to come along.

Next phase will be the big guns phase.  We are going to move appliances around, have a new island built, new flooring and paint the cabinets.  We are also wanting to build false beams for more lighting and then possibly hang a pot rack from them over the island.  All this will come when the income tax refund arrives next year but until then, I LOVE MY RED KITCHEN.

Museum of Osteology in OKC

On Sunday mornings we usually let the kids watch Outdoor Oklahoma if and only if they are dressed, fed and have brushed teeth before it comes on at 8am on OETA.  Recently when we were watching, they were touring the Museum of Osteology (skeletons) in OKC. My kids were GLUED to the television and in total awe so we decided to add the museum to our "museum tour".

The story behind the museum is just as interesting as the museum itself and it all started with a 6th grader's collection for a science fair.

I have to say that it was just as cool on television as it was in person.  To say we loved it is a total understatement.  There were so many different varieties of animal skeletons that you literally have to sit down to look at each display and really examine them.  I took more pics than I probably should have but seeing all the different skeletons was just so fascinating.  The pics I am posting are those animals that you see in Okie Land.  Also to see all the teeny tiny bones of a mouse or a hummingbird then to turn and see the skeleton of a humpback whale and a giraffe is just crazy.  We are so glad we went there and plan on taking the kids again especially when they are older.  This would be a great place for a science field trip.

Mouse

Turtle

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

Raccoon eating Milk Duds...so true

Hummingbird in flight

Hummingbird & nest

Jasmine Moran Children's Museum in Seminole

HUGE maze

Dragon-like thing to climb on

On our mini-vacation we went to Oklahoma City for 3 days and visited 4 very different museums while we were there.  The first one we went to was the Jasmine Moran Children's Museum in Seminole which is just outside OKC.  We have never been there before but last year the first grade at the kids' school went there for a field trip and the teachers, students and parents raved about it so we thought we would give it a try.

Let's just say, my kids were is HEAVEN. When we got there we checked out their outdoor activities first before the heat set in.  They have a train you can walk thru and a train to ride.  They also had this really cool maze that was huge.  We all loved running thru it scaring each other.  Then the inside of the museum was separated into play areas like construction, school, courtroom, grocery store, fire station, hospital, mechanics, and science and art areas.  They also had a large aquarium, place where you could dig for dinosaur bones, they could be a surgeon operating, an airplane cockpit and ambulance that they could play in.  They even had a HUGE dragon-like climbing thing that the kids could not get enough of.  Our favorite part was the bubbles area and then this room that had a glowing wall.

Don't tell anyone . . . but I hope the first grade goes back again this next school year.  I will be going as a sponsor with my 2 first graders and will be taking my big kid too.
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Future mechanic?

Or maybe a pilot with his crew

Making a big bubble wall around them

The engineer playing

Grocery shopping

Stowaways

We took a mini-vacation to OKC last week and went on a "tour of museums" which I will write about soon but I wanted to go ahead and post this pic cause it was SO HYSTERICAL.

As we were packing the car for our trip, we discovered we had 2 stowaways who were trying really hard to blend in although they didn't know that we were taking them with us and dropping them off at the big farm to stay while we were gone.

We decided it looked like Maggie was saying . . . Annie, don't make eye contact and maybe they won't notice us.

We LOVE these pooches!

No More Leftovers

What happens when you eat dinner in the sunroom and leave leftovers of Chicken Fried Rice on the table while you take dishes in to be washed?

This . . .

On Hiatus From Blogging . . .

For the past 2 weeks, we have been busy little bees around our house re-doing rooms, took a mini-vacation and even had a family gathering at our house with 42 guests.  I will be posting pics of all our adventures but for now I need to get back in to the swing of things around the farm and house.  Laundry is calling my name...

BEST GUARD DOG EVER

When we moved into our house we inherited a dog. Not a new dog but she was new to us.  The previous owners decided to leave her at the house when they sold it cause it was her HOME.  We became her new family.  She took us in and accepted us.  Her name was Callie but we have called her Callie Jo from day one.  She was a Collie mix with long matted hair.  She hated when we would brush her hair but none the less she would endure it. We have no idea how old she was.  The previous owner said that his wife had found her on the side of the road somewhere and she was not a pup but about 1-2yrs old.  They had her for about 10yrs and then we had her for a year and a half.  So she could be as old as 13 or as young as 10.  We don't know, only she did.

When we woke on Saturday, she was moving really slow and she had an eye that was drooping and watering.  She was breathing hard but not panting. She would not drink water.  We figured that she must have had a heat stroke thanks to our 100+ degree weather.  Sunday, she was doing a little better.  She walked around, drank a HUGE amount of water and even went with Kyle and Squirrel on a walk to the far side of our property.  She even made it up Butterfly Hill before the guys made up it. We thought that she must be pulling thru what ever had happened.

Then yesterday morning she was throwing up then crawled under our flatbed trailer and wouldn't come out. The kids and I checked on her periodically then I went out by myself and she had died.  We are heart broken. She was a great dog to us and according to Cricket, she was the BEST GUARD DOG EVER. We buried her by the creek under one of the pecan trees. Cricket wanted to be able to look out her bedroom window and see her. So we did. Luckily, we said our goodbyes on Saturday night since we thought she wouldn't make it thru that night and we took theses pics Sunday morning when she did.  We are thankful that we were able to have these memories with her. This is HER house and HER land and we will always remember that.

Our Miss Annie is having a difficult time with it too. We lost our dog but she lost her best friend. She is howling as I type this.  She would always howl if Callie got shut out of our fenced in yard. Kyle is already talking about getting Annie a new friend but with the heat, I say wait a while til it cools off but I know we will have one soon.  

Rest in Peace, Callie Jo.