The base pool

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We don't have a whole lot going on out here. No massive snow-capped mountains. No big, bustling city. No real shopping. But we do have a really fun swimming pool on base. Nearly every weekend the girls manage to talk us into going (most of the convincing is done by Claire, with Maddie adding "Uh huh" and "Yeah!" to the case for going to the pool). There's a wonderful little toddler pool with a water slide, two smaller slides in the big pool and two huge winding slides going into the big pool. Of course, our children can not be content in the toddler pool when there are big slides luring them into the big pool!

They tested out their new life vests this week. Claire's definitely helps her to be a little more independent. And it helps her float enough that Mommy can take her down the big slide now (before only Daddy had the skills to keep her head above water so the girls had to take turns going down the big slide with Daddy). Here they are going down the smaller slides in the big pool:

Fwoof-woof and Baby

Claire used to have her nap-naps and she still has her blankie that she likes to "edge on" (Claire-speak for rubbing the edge with her thumb). You may often see it in photos, because she's never far from one of her blankies. For a long time Maddie only had her thumb, which was great because it's easy to clean and it never gets lost. Then one day not too long ago Maddie suddenly imprinted upon a random stuffed dog, "Fwoof-woof", and a teddy bear, "Baby" (fwoof-woof is Maddie-speak for woof-woof, which in turn is Maddie-speak for dog). In addition to those, she has a tiny blankie that I sewed for her when she was tiny (in hopes that she would get attached to that, since I made two and it was SMALL!). So now she has THREE things she must sleep with, and she likes to carry them around with her for awhile when she wakes up, much like her big sister likes to carry around her blankies first thing in the morning. The difference is that Claire's pacifiers were replacable and we have about 7 blankies stockpiled. Maddie has managed to choose two stuffed animals that were gifts and I have no idea where to get spares.

Edited to add: After writing this I decided to check Ebay for a Fwoof-woof. It was a long shot, but I just found another Fwoof-woof on ebay for quite a steal. Obviously the seller had NO idea what a spare Fwoof-woof is worth. Needless to say, we now have one on the way, juuuuuust in case anything bad should happen to this one.

Flag Day

And here's our little patriot (she learned this in school):

Back home

We got power back on Sunday evening; Phil and a couple of other guys drove back together Sunday night so they could turn the air conditioning back on and go to work on Monday. I stayed in OKC for one more night with a few of the other wives and kids, figuring Murphy's law would kick in and the power wouldn't actually come back if we came back to town (plus, the hotel was pretty darned nice and none of us really wanted to leave)! We were going to take the kids to the pool in the morning and then set off for home. Monday morning, though, it was raining cats and dogs when Claire woke up and looked out the window. So we watched TV while waiting for most of the storms to pass before heading back to Altus with our friends.

Once we were back I had to get working because a couple of other gals and I hostessed the squadron's spouses function Tuesday night. We had a fun evening planned of... (my dad's going to love this) ...hitting golf balls at the driving range! Yep, we got the ladies together and whacked some balls. One of the course employees tutored us and tried to make sure we didn't hit any cars with our wayward balls. Then of course we had refreshments at the clubhouse and visited for awhile in the air conditioning. I think everyone had fun, and a few even said they thought they would go take some one-on-one lessons at the course. Not me, though; the golf gene missed me and I'm afraid I'm pretty hopeless when it comes to golf skills.

OKC

Our refugee trip to Oklahoma City was very unplanned, but that didn't stop us from having a bit of fun. We stayed at the Residence Inn in Bricktown - great government rate and it's right on the river walk. Just walking into the air-conditioned suite felt so nice. We immediately ran into our good friends there and hit the swimming pool with the kids. Next morning we visited the zoo and then my friend and I hit Target without the kids, where we spent 3 hours and lots of moolah. Didn't even have time to get to the mall. Oops! Got back to the room and visited the river walk and ate at a yummy resteraunt, starting the walk on the path behind our hotel. It's not quite like San Antonio's famous river walk, but it's nice. Now that we've tasted the big city life I think it won't be long before we plan another trip there.

A few more storm photos

...and here are a few photos that Phil took around town today. Pretty impressive damage. We feel really lucky that we came out OK.

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Tornado?

(Dateline Oklahoma City) Two days after our first "major weather event" in Oklahoma, we're in OKC to find decent food, entertainment, and air conditioning. The local news guys have a pretty good synopsis here. Be sure to watch the video linked in the story!

The weather folks said it probably wasn't a tornado since there wasn't rotation, just strong micro-bursts and straight-line winds. That's almost as believable as USAF folks saying "it's just a weather balloon or swamp gas." We came through ok, just still without power.

More to come later, here's a shot of us hunkering down in our inside hallway. Keep in mind, it was completely dark as the power was out -- the flash lit things pretty well. Claire slept through the whole thing (she's under the red blanket...you can see her toes), Maddie liked the idea of camping out and then surveying the damage!

Our Very Hungry Caterpillar

I was checking out our lovely HUGE tomato plants yesterday when I discovered a yucky tomato worm. Eeeeek! My first impulse was to squash the darned thing for eating my tomato plants, but then I had a vivid childhood memory:

Picture Grandma Strong and my mom at the farm, picking tomatoes. Suddenly one of them would let out a huge shriek and I knew to go running because some poor tomato worm was going to get squashed into oblivion. After much coaxing we'd get to put him into a jar and watch him make a cocoon and turn into a great big sphinx moth. So much fun!

Back to now: I look over at Claire and Maddie and just know that they'd love to watch a caterpillar turn into a moth (or butterfly-who-flies-at-night, as I explained to Claire). One of their favorite books is The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Darn. Looks like it's this worm's lucky day.

He is now enjoying the comfort of our air-conditioned home. He has a very healthy appetite, so it's a good thing my tomato plants are big. If I find any others, though, I think they're going to get squashed. Can't have them spreading the word that my garden is some sort of sanctuary. I'll just have to remember not to let out a shriek that will bring my kids running.

Feelin' Hot Hot HOT

It has officially reached "Ridiculously Hot" here in Altus. The extended forecast doesn't show anything below 100 degrees. Coping with the heat takes a bit of creativity since there are no shopping malls, museums, or other air-conditioned places within a reasonable distance. Fortunately, we've found a few ways to have fun:

Swimming!

Popsicles (or a combination of the two)!

We don't have photos of the base pool yet (keep forgetting the camera), but it's loads of fun. Lots of water slides and a great toddler pool.