45th Infantry Museum

OKC has a TON of museums that we are excited to explore. (Also a TON of churches and banks) Anyways, before Blaine started school, we explored the 45th Infantry Museum two times. Its really close to our house and its free, run by veteran volunteers. It had artifacts from every single war imaginable, dating all the way back to the Revolutionary War. Its pretty amazing.

This mirror was hanging in Adolf Hitler's bedroom. I was pretty fascinated but pretty creeped out by it.  It was interesting to see, but looking at myself in it kind of made me feel uncomfortable. It was the mirror such a dark person looked into everyday. In the reflection is Hitler's cloak and a banner that was hanging at his grave.

I thought this was really cool! Its a letter from President Roosevelt to the soldiers in World War II. I used to really really like FDR, but once Abbie told me he had cheated on his wife, my adoration diminished.  

Inside a fighter pilot. I've always liked these because of my dad... and Tom Cruise and Anthony Edwards in Top Gun.

I forgot whose desk this is, but its some Generals. Ha, sorry for the lack of detail. 

Outside the museum,  they have a bunch of tanks, helicopters, planes, and military jeeps.

More miscellaneous items from Hitler's place. 

Boys II Men and 98 Degrees Concert

Last night was our first time in the Chesapeake Energy Arena where the OKC Thunder play.

Blaine and I (and a lot of women of all ages) went to go see some 90's boy bands, complete with synchronized dance moves and dancing with microphone stands. I saw that they were coming to OKC a couple months ago when I was living in Provo, but I didn't push it too much because New Kids on the Block was the headliner and I know probably two of their songs, so it wasn't worth the money.

But then I found someone here who couldn't go anymore and was selling her tickets for half price! So I couldn't resist that deal ;) We were on the top row (where we usually are at a concert) but the arena didn't seem to be that big to me, and the stage was in the center of the court, instead of the back. So I could actually see pretty well, but it was the hearing that was the problem.

I have reasons to believe that everyone skipped soundcheck. I don't know if the crowd was unusually loud and disruptive or their mics weren't very loud, but it could very well have been both.

Boys II Men came on first and they were my favorite. I knew all the words to all their songs and they were workin the crowd. When they sang "I'll Make Love to You," rose petals fell from the ceiling and they threw roses out to the crowd. Haha, I appreciated the effort.

98 Degrees was next and they were Blaine's favorite. I wish they would've stayed to the classics, but they mixed in a couple new ones for their big come back. At one point they said it was getting really hot in there, so they all got in their wife beaters and grabbed 4 girls from the audience (and by girls, I mean 30-50 year old moms) and sang to them. Haha one lady was holding her phone on her lap and taking pictures while they were right in front of her, holding her hand, and on bended knee. It was pretty funny.

Then New Kids on the Block came out, and as the headliners, they had all the pyrotechnics. The stage went up and down and spun and everything. We stayed for probably half of their set, but the music wasn't very good and they just kept going on and on and on about how they still got it after 25 years. I told my dad that they were bugging me because they were acting like they were so sexy even though they're like 50 years old, and he was like, "What do you mean? Are you saying 50 year olds can't be sexy?"

Hahaha, silly dad. There was one NKOTB guy that must've worked really really hard on his abs, because anytime he had a solo or some camera time, all he would do is lift up his shirt and rub his 6-pack. So between that and the distorted, unfamiliar music, Blaine and I decided to jet out a little early. We were already downtown in Bricktown, so we walked around a little and got some food. There was a couple street preachers passing out flyers and talking to groups of people. Oh, and there were a lot of bike riders with those carriages attached to their bikes that people were hiring to take them back to their cars and stuff.

Chips and Queso at Fuzzys. Not quite as amazing as Moe's

After we ate, we thought about seeing a movie at the theatre next door, but decided not to. So we headed home and were there within 10 minutes, avoiding all the traffic since we don't have to take the freeway to get home. All in all, it was a good night together :) Blaine said that country music is still is favorite, and we decided that Rascal Flatts or Luke Bryan will be our next concert--whoever comes first ;) Toby Keith, a fellow Oklahoma resident, along with a bunch of other country singers are doing a benefit concert for those affected by the tornadoes, which sold out in about a day. But Wicked is coming in September...?!?!?! ;)

Week 3 in OKC

On Monday, I had kabobs ready hot off the grill by the time Blaine came home. Then he went back to that investigator's house with the missionaries and had a nice visit with them. Meanwhile, I was making homemade fruit by the foot.

Then on Tuesday we had dinner with some new friends. My cousin in Salt Lake told us that his friend was coming to OU Dental School for his orthodontic residency. And then we met said friend and his wife in our ward on Sunday! They actually live in our same complex and invited us over for dinner on Tuesday. I offered to bring something, so she said I could cover the salad, and I made a knock-off version of Zupas' Nuts About Berries.

We spent 3 hours at their place, just talking and playing games. We're 2 pretty competitive couples, so I'm sure there are many more games in store for us. We had never played Sequence, so we only won one out of four games, so we said that next time we'd pick the game and have home field advantage.

Then tonight we had the OTHER set of missionaries over and then Blaine went to an appointment with them later on. I think we'll be done with weeknight activities for a while. We've made a lot of friends and have enjoyed some fun things, but we'll save all that for the weekends for a while so Blaine can have enough time to study and relax. And then party hard on the weekends.

For example, this weekend we are going to the 98 degrees/Boys II Men concert!!!!! O-o-o-o! ;) Can't wait. Blaine even admitted that he was looking forward to it.

This is the creamsicle pie I made for the missionaries. It has to be made a day ahead of time so it can freeze, but last night Blaine and I decided that we should eat it :) So I made a half-batch of chocolate chip oat cookies and sent the leftovers with the Elders.

Sunday Scorpions and Settlers

Sunday after church and our nap, we went over to our friends Jon and Darlene's house with our friend Tim to celebrate Jon's birthday. We had taco salad and fruit pizza and even played Settlers of Catan. Blaine and Jon usually don't like board games, so thats saying something. I had never played before but have heard a lot of people talk about it. It was pretty fun though, except that I lost horribly.

Oh, and the way I got Blaine up from our nap was by making him kill this thing off of our bedroom floor... a scorpion!!

The picture is not so great because I didn't want to get too close.

Saturday Sports Day

So Saturday began with sleeping in and studying for Blaine. Then around 6 when it dropped from 95 to 90 degrees, our friends Jon and Darlene came over to play.

We walked around to the basketball court to shoot around a little, but there were 4 kids down there already and they really wanted to play a full court game with us. So we ended up playing for a long time. And these were literally kids - 9, 10, 14, and 15. And they didn't cut each other any slack, especially for the 9 year old. Half of them were super intense about it too.

It was funny at first but once it became apparent that the know-it-all 14 year old thought I couldn't play and that everything I did was lucky, then that got me mad. Just let it be known that once I decided to teach him a little lesson, he continually got stuffed. It was the first time I had seen my dad's old saying actually played out in real life: he took his ball and went home. But anyways ;)

After we cooled off a bit, we walked over to the sand volleyball court and played some 2 on 2. Then by 8:45 once all the drinkers were out of the pool, we went swimming. But it was too cold because of all the wind. So we got out and got some hot and ready Little Caesars.

Volleyball

Blaine and some dental friends put together a sand volleyball team for an intramural tournament and I thought I'd share some pictures since it was pretty much Blaine's first time ever playing organized volleyball. He's so cute huh? ;)

D1 Dinner at Bricktown

Last night was Blaine's dinner with his D1 class at the Bourbon Street Cafe in Bricktown.

We carpooled with our friends Jon and Darlene and ordered virgin pina coladas and strawberry daiquiris with them while others got their non-virgin drinks on. We had some nice steak, salmon, and mashed potatoes and the D2 kids made some announcements and put together a little video about how fun dental school is.

Oh yeah, we somehow got a tiny fork in our napkin...?

Then afterwards we walked around Bricktown a little bit, checking out the bands and restaurants and everything. I found out that the water taxis are $9 a person, so we saved that for another day. But there were also lots of horse drawn carriages and even one that looked like Cinderella's pumpkin carriage. Here are a couple pictures of the Bricktown Candy Co. and sampled their gelato

1st Job Interview of OKC

Remember when we went out with the missionaries on Monday and that guy told me about that website to find coaching jobs? Well I had a job interview today as a result of that. It was in McLoud, OK, about 40 minutes east of OKC. There was nothing but trees and fields between here and there. Well, halfway between here and there in Midwest City is Tinker Air Force Base, but other that that, nothing going on.

McLoud is a really tiny community with pretty old schools. All the schools are in the same little area and there is a lot of overlap between them. They have 2 safe houses on campus for when tornadoes hit.

I met with the Athletic Director of the High School and Junior High, who is also the Assistant Principal. I originally applied for the position because it said softball and basketball coach, but when he called, he said he also needs a pom coach for the dance team. He said that he saw on my resume that my interests and hobbies included music and Zumba, so he was hoping I'd be interested.

So I met with him today and we talked for an hour. The position would include teaching 3 periods of a junior high elective class called "Leadership." Then coaching pom for one period, then coaching softball for 2 periods during softball season and basketball for those 2 periods during basketball season. So its junior high slow pitch softball, junior high fast pitch softball, and junior high basketball. And then high school pom coach, which apparently used to be a popular and successful program, but hit an all time low last year when they had a change in coaching, so they need to rebuild. I called Alexis and she was excited for me and said we could choreograph some routines on facetime together :)

It's really nice that the majority of the coaching would be during the school day, so hopefully I could leave at 3:20 half the time instead of having after school practices. But I'd still have games in the afternoons and evenings, which would be fun, but just a big commitment.

He didn't ask me too many questions at all, just wanted to know my experience with each of those sports. He said that he really liked my enthusiasm and that its just what they need - especially the pom squad. The AD was a nice country guy who sincerely told me to do whatever is best for me and my husband at this time and shared some personal details of his life to reiterate what a big time commitment coaching is.

OH! And I'd have to get my CDL license because I'd have to drive the school bus to take my teams to all our away games. I mean, talk about a fun and unique experience!!!

SO I don't know what to do. I want to do it because I think it wouldn't be very hard, just time consuming. I also think it would be fun to be involved with all those sports and get to know all those kids in that community. And how many people can say they've driven a school bus? It would also be good experience in a variety of areas and would help me extend my teaching license.

If it was closer to my house I think it'd be an easy "yes," but its not, and I have some concerns:
- I would spend at least an hour and a half in the car everyday, much of that time being early and late
- It would be a lot of time spent away from home and Blaine, and I think, "what if Blaine is super stressed and needs me?" or "we'll never have a normal night or dinner time and there are things around the house that need to be done"
- The majority of my free time would be gone - evenings, weekends, vacations. For example, Alexis' wedding is the day after school starts.
- My number one priority is having a baby, which means I'll continue to have several doctors appointments and I need to have a flexible schedule to get to them and in the same city

SO... thats that. I don't know what I'll do because I keep going back and forth, but pretty much, the job is mine if I want it.

Oh yeah, one more funny story. I was talking to my dad on the phone afterwards and I got turned around as I was leaving the school and ended up driving to another tiny town on this little back road before meeting up with the freeway. But before I got to the freeway, I either somehow got stuck in the middle of a funeral processional or was bringing up the rear of one. Everyone on the opposite side of this country road had pulled off to the side out of respect and I'm describing this to my dad, all the while just wanting to find I-44. I don't know what happened, but it was funny.

OKC Friends

Last Saturday was a busy day for us on the social scene. We first went to a fondue party with a bunch of people in our ward who live in our same apartment complex. A couple of them had babies but surprisingly, many did not. (There was one baby girl named Jocelyn who was SO BEAUTIFUL!) Everyone was really friendly and I was glad to know so many of our ward members live here with us. It is a really large complex, but judging the it strictly off of its pools, I was worried we were living in a frat house. I hope you do more things with those couples.

Then from there, we went to meet Blaine's classmates. It was just an informal, unofficial gathering that someone set up on facebook for the D1 students. The host was a woman in probably her early thirties who had a little girl and a husband in the Air Force. They had a slideshow of his military pictures going in the living room, which were really cool.

Everyone was really nice and friendly, as I've mentioned before. Everyone is really spiritual and open about religion too, as I've mentioned before. Some people were a little drunk, but the night turned out much better than I thought. While we were there, we met up with another LDS couple from Arizona who are in another ward. We left the party around 10:30 because I was so hungry and had only eaten fondue for lunch and dinner.

Long story short, the girl of that couple (Darlene) works at Chile's, so we ended up going out to eat at Chile's with them and it was a lot of fun. It was Blaine's first time and we deemed it a successful trip. And because of her sweet employee discount, they even paid for our food. It was really sweet of them and we've really become good friends with them. Her husband (Jon) is the one that Blaine carpools to school with every morning.

Here are a couple of very bad and blurry pictures, but better than nothing ;)

Oklahoma Temple and Neighborhoods

On Saturday we decided to go to the OKC temple (technically in Yukon, OK). So we drove 25 minutes and got there to find out that it was closing. They close around 4 on Saturdays apparently, which is a lot different from our Provo and other Utah temples. But at least we found out where it was. It was VERY small and one of those that shares a parking lot with the stake center.

Then we saw this on the way home: I think you have to be 51% Native American to work out here ;)

Anyways, Sunday afternoon we drove around Nichols Hills to just explore some neighborhoods around OKC. Blaine's friend at church told us that Nichols Hills was nice-- and it was. There are lots of trees and grassy areas around here, which I didn't expect for Oklahoma. But it's really pretty. Each house had a TON of land - huge front lawns and backyards, lots of trees, which made it hard to take pictures. I took a couple to give you an idea of what it looks like but it DOES NOT do it justice. Lots of brick, lots of triangular, European features. Just come visit. Its so much better in person. They are beautiful neighborhoods that Blaine and I think we could live in. Just keeping our options open :)