An accidental painting

 I've been doing a lot of painting recently! There's just something really fun about taking a blank canvas and transforming it into something beautiful that you're proud to display on your walls! Our entry way table is decorated now for fall, but as it's December, I need to step it up with getting my Christmas/winter decor going!

The other night, I turned on a tutorial and started painting a cute snowman. I wasn't too keen on the idea of adding his arms, but after a little internal debate, I decided to do it. WHAT A MISTAKE THAT WAS.

Beautiful little snowman...

WHY DOES HE HAVE A SWASTIKA HAND?!

Almost immediately, I made the decision to paint over the arm, but as the black paint was still wet, I ended up making his body gray. UGH! Frustrated, I put the painting aside so I could fix it another day with a fresh pair of eyes and a new bucket of patience. 

The arm was hard to paint over! It took several coats of white and a bit of brown to hide the arm well enough that I could be happy with the end result. Now my snowman graces the entry way table and only you and I know what a terrible hand he used to have. Shh, it's our little secret.

One month and one day later...

 We got our shelter installed one month and one day before we actually had to USE it.

Since yesterday or the day before, we knew a thunderstorm was going to be happening this evening. It wasn't a big deal at all. In fact, we were going to go have dinner at Cory and Kristen's but changed our minds, not because of inclement weather, but because Blake is feeling a bit icky from having a cold.

Anyway, I decided to make adobo which we ate and enjoyed. After doing dishes, Blake and Liam decided to play some VR while I played around on my computer. Around maybe 7pm, we got random little flashes of lightning, but nothing too crazy. Just before 7:30pm, the power flickered enough to turn off all our electronics. That's sort of weird because all the power lines in our neighborhood are underground and we've not experienced a flicker significant enough to turn off the power before. 

As I waited for my computer to boot up, I got an alert on my phone. TORNADO WARNING. Let me explain: A tornado WATCH means, "Hey. Eventually at some point today, maybe there will be weather that can make a tornado happen. Or not. Who knows? Maybe nothing will come of this." On the flip side, there is a tornado WARNING which is "A tornado is about to form or has already formed and it's been confirmed by a storm spotter or confirmed on radar. TAKE SHELTER NOW."

One of the tornado chasers I follow posted a warning just for us!

Well, my phone said it was the BIG one. A WARNING. But... we never even had a watch issued, so my brain saw WARNING and thought WATCH. I was like, "meh... Okay, maybe I should get the news on." I walked out to the living room where Blake had just opened the back door and was yelling to the neighbor. Our neighbor yelled, "Did you get the warning? We need to take cover!"

Then my brain realized that I had misunderstood what I'd read on my phone. My phone was telling me to get in the shelter. Immediately. We hurried to gather the dogs and got in the shelter. Luckily, we have it set up perfectly. We got the lights on, sat on our 5-gallon buckets filled with supplies, and listened to the emergency weather station on the radio while eagerly searching for up-to-date news on our phones. As soon as we sat down and had the door closed, our phones started blaring. Apparently, the app that had warned me gives the warning fairly gently, but when the iPhone itself got the message of emergency, it blares a sound you cannot ignore. The alert bounced off the walls of the shelter, echoing in the small space.

Hello from our shelter!

We were in the shelter for about 30 minutes. I'm anxious to see what sort of damage there might be. It's hard to know for sure how many tornadoes touched down tonight, but when the sun comes up, the scientists will be able to start their work of evaluating what happened. According to a tornado meteorologist that I follow, one tornado touched down near the Hard Rock Casino and traveled toward the Blue Whale, scattering debris as close as one mile from our house. Guess I'll see come daylight!

I created this log to record the dates and times that we use the shelter.

We timed that right!

 We decided to get our shelter installed before the next tornado season begins. We decided it would be great to beat the rush (spring is the installers' busy season!), and also it would just be nice to have it so we have time to set it up with supplies and whatnot before we need to use it. 

Well, as luck would have it, we have two systems pushing in this week that are predicted to bring tornados. I asked our neighbor, "Isn't this a little out of season?!" to which she replied, "Not really. Things sometimes kick up again in the fall." Oh, so tornado season 2.0?

 I've been keeping a close eye on this because, yes, I do like to be prepared, but mostly because it's just so fascinating to see how the prediction has changed little by little as the first storm gets closer. It's predicted to start tomorrow late afternoon in the Oklahoma City area before making its way to the Tulsa area. Wind, rain, lightning, thunder, hail, and maybe some tornados are expected to come with this storm.

Yesterday, we were outside of the main predicted area, but they expanded the bubble and now we're right inside it.

Lots of storm chasers are heading to Oklahoma this weekend to try to catch a tornado so they can get great footage and scientific data. I think most of them will end up west of us in OKC, but maybe we'll see a few in town today when we're out and about.

Tonight we will clean up the back yard, secure anything loose and also pull my car into the garage just in case there's damaging hail. I'll be sure to update you on anything exciting that may happen! I'm totally fine with not having to take shelter. If tornados touch down around us, cool, but not too close! The three of us are hoping for epic thunder and lightning though, because we love those storms!

Oh, and another storm is predicted to roll in Tuesday during the daytime. Gonna have to keep an eye on that and plan accordingly! I know Liam's school is prepared with large shelters to fit the entire population of the school and then some, but if the morning itself starts off questionable, I'd likely just keep him home! I guess that's the new Oklahoman in me. Everyone else will probably just call it Tuesday and move on as usual.

Introducing Mabel

 After Emma lost her brother, Oliver, she just wasn't perking up. Dogs, like humans, go through a grieving process after they lose someone important to them. I remember Oliver going through it after Ivan died, too. Emma was there with us when Oliver passed. I remember she was cuddling with him the whole time, but then after he passed, she gave him a lick and a nuzzle and then walked away. She knew. Her being there for closure was a big part of the reason we all wanted to have a vet come to us. With Ivan, we took him to the vet and I swear, Oliver looked for Ivan for weeks. I've always felt guilty that we didn't give Oliver that closure.

Always, after Oliver had been gone about two months, it was clear Emma was still in a state of depression. She was mopey, clingy, and had just lost some pep in her step. She became the most spoiled dog as we took her everywhere with us, but she still had a sadness about her. I wasn't ready to get another dog quite yet, but it wasn't about me: Emma needed a companion.

Blake took charge of the hunt for a friend because I still didn't have it in me to even consider getting another dog, even though I knew Emma needed it. He found a set of sisters who were rescued from unsafe living conditions. A litter of four puppies was born outside in Collinsville, Oklahoma. One of the four died after being struck by a car. To add insult to injury, the dogs were born during a week-long snow and ice storm that brought subzero temperatures for over a week! Poor things. All three caught our attention, but "Marzie" had such sad eyes and giant ears and immediately, I wanted to meet her. We actually referred to her as "the one who needs a hug!" when we talked about her and her sisters. I mean, come on. Look at that sad little face!

Drooling, sad little Marzie just needed a hug and some loving.

We were told she was going to the vet for a check up and a routine spay, then we could meet her and see if it was a good fit. The four of us (yes, Emma, too!) went to meet her and the first thing she did was crawl up into Liam's lap and curled up into a small ball. He stated, "Yup, she's the one!"

We went home with our new friend and she was sooo timid. She laid in her dog bed all day. We took her to the store to get her a collar and she wouldn't even walk. She was just hunched over like in her picture. We ended up having to carry her through the store with us.

The next morning, she was vibrant and happy! She was running around, exploring the house and came running whenever she heard us call for her. Emma, however, wasn't sure about her new housemate. Marzie, or Mabel, as we came to call her, kept trying to play, but Emma wasn't having it. She had no interest in playing and snubbed Mabel for 8 whole days. Finally, she started to return playful moves and they've been playing and wrestling ever since! Now they are the best of friends and they're a joy to watch play and cuddle. 

Mabel loves her humans!

Mabel also loves her sister!

Tornado Shelter

 I still can't believe we live somewhere where tornado precautions are necessary!

Oklahoma gets more tornados than any other state in the nation. However, Tulsa doesn't really get THAT many by comparison. The last damage-causing tornado in Tulsa was in 2017. So while some parts of Oklahoma have damage-causing storms every year, Tulsa is not very high on the danger list. Because of that, we'd considered not even having a shelter installed.  We figured we could just head to our master closet (the most interior room we have) in case of emergency. We talked to neighbors and most of them didn't have a shelter which was surprising to us. In the end, though, there's a certain peace of mind that a storm shelter brings, so we started doing our research and decided that an above-ground shelter in the garage would be perfect for us.

We called a company that we first spoke to at a Home and Garden show in Tulsa last month. They came by last week to measure and in less than a week, they were here for the install! They custom-built this shelter just for us to fit our space. We wanted to be able to still access the attic via the pull-down ladder and also wanted the door on the short side so that we can place a workbench along the long side.

I had a good time watching the process for installation, starting with how they get this big one-piece shelter off their trailer! It took them less than an hour to get it installed which I found impressive. They even took the time to wash the exterior so it was free of hand prints. That attention to detail is much appreciated!

All done!

Storm season here peeks between March and June. We beat the spring rush and we are ready to go! We will fill it with necessities such as food and water and it'll be ready for use as needed. Last year, the tornado siren sounded just once in our neighborhood. Liam's school has two different shelters (they're BIG. They fit the entire school population and then some) so if a storm hits during the day, we know he'll be safe at school.

Mr. Oliver Wendall Isaacson

Oliver Wendall Isaacson 

March 16, 2007- May 17, 2021

    I often think about just how lucky we were to find ourselves with an Oliver in our lives. We had just moved into base housing at NSF Kamiseya, Japan and our friend told us about a woman who had gone back stateside and left her backdoor open so her two dogs could run freely in and out and just take care of themselves while she was gone. I was shocked that anyone would think that's a good way to take care of your pets (one of which was a tiny puppy!) for a month! We were told the couple would soon be moving back to the USA and they had no plans on taking the dachshund puppy back with them. They were going to take their other dog though, because they paid for him (as though a dog's value is in their price tag!) Our friend told us that the woman didn't care what happened to the puppy since he was, you know, free.

    We ended up going over to the lady's yard and I just fell in love with this super cute dachshund. He was so loving and cuddly and we scooped him up and took him home with us. My memory is a little faded, but I think we just kept him for several hours and loved on him and cuddled him and then returned him to his yard. Our friend had told this lady that her friends (us) were interested in adopting the dog if she was okay with it. The lady seemed receptive so when she returned home the next day, Blake and I headed over to chat with her. 

"Hi! We were told you might be looking to rehome this dog, and we'd love to have him if you're willing!" 

"Oh? This dog? Yeah, I'm not taking him with us."

"So.. that's a yes?"

"Yeah."

"Oh... okay, so... want to say goodbye? We can come pick him up later....?"

"Oh, heck no. Go. Take him."

"Does he have a collar or leash or anything?"

"Nope."

"Um. Okay... Thanks....?"

"Yup."

Oliver was just 3 months old when he joined our family!

And then we held little Rottie close and walked home! Yes, Rottie. His name was Rottie because he looked like a Rottweiler. YUCK! It was only a day or two before Mr. Oliver Wendall Isaacson was given a name more befitting of his awesomesauceness. As we walked away from his first home, I held him close, walking quickly before the lady could change her mind... As though she'd change it! That afternoon, we headed to a store called Viva Home where they have a massive pet section. We got a shopping cart designated for pets and pushed Oliver around while we shopped for a collar and leash. I'm certain we got him some lovely toys and treats, too.

As they say, the rest is history. For 14 years, we got to love on the best dog in existence. He's been gone now for just over 4 months and I still cry when I think about him. Heck, I'm crying now. 

Have you heard of the phrase "Soul Dog"??  The idea of a soul dog is that once in a lifetime (maybe twice if you're lucky!) you fall in love with a dog that just GETS you and you GET him. You click in a way that's just unexplainable. You share a closer bond with your soul dog than with any other dog. A canine soulmate, if you will. Oliver was most definitely my soul dog.  He was always so, so obedient. For me. For others? Well, he was a hardheaded jerk sometimes! For example, when it was time for him to go pee, he'd sit at the door and lightly whine until we heard him. If I headed over to the door and opened it, he'd run outside and do his business. However, if Blake was the one to open the door, Oliver would run away from the door 9 times out of 10, and refuse to go outside! Why? Because he wanted his soul person to open it, duhhhh. Liam had slightly better odds- Oliver would go outside maybe half of the time if Liam were to open the door. Oliver was weird, for sure.

I still cannot believe how fast we lost him. He started limping one day. His back leg was bothering him. After this went on for a week, I made an appointment for Monday afternoon. They did x-rays and came back with terrible news: his femur was broken and the bone itself had a moth-eaten appearance about it. No longer solid, the bone was disintegrating. Cancer was most likely the culprit. They said it was likely one of two kinds: Aggressive or super aggressive. They asked if we wanted further testing and I said yes immediately. I just had to know what was responsible for taking away my Soul Dog. They had me come in on Wednesday so they could put him under and do a test by extracting cells around the bone. The results came back: Super aggressive cancer, osteosarcoma.

Our treatment options were limited. We could amputate and then do chemo which would give us maybe another 3-6 months with him. Or we could do nothing and wait for the sign that he was ready to go. He was still so happy, but they told us he'd be ready to go in less than a month. We never even considered amputation and chemo. He was 14 and that's just too much to put him through. We'd decided we'd rather soak up our last days with him rather than put him through a terrible surgery, recovery, and chemo. Most unfortunately, just a few days later, he let us know he was ready. He lost his perkiness and his eyes didn't shine the same way. And it's hard to describe, but he all of a sudden didn't smell like Oliver. He smelled different; He smelled like he was sick. Just 7 days after our preliminary diagnosis, it was time to say goodbye.

On May 17, 2021, a vet helped Oliver cross that Rainbow Bridge. We called a traveling vet that comes to you. It was a nicer way than taking him into an unfamiliar clinic. The three of us sat on the bed in our RV as Oliver passed. I held him to the very end. I don't remember a time I've ever cried so hard in my life. It felt like part of me was dying, too. When the vet listened to his chest, she declared, "He is gone." but I already knew. The moment he left this earth was the moment I learned that Soul Dogs are real. 

I will never, ever stop missing my Loolie. My Ollie Dolly. My Loolz. My Oi Oi. My dog of many names! Loolessiver, Vertical, Oybo, Oiless, Olivander, Looless, It's a wonder he ever responded to Oliver, his official name, yet the one I used the least. 

And that, in an emotional nutshell, is why I stopped posting on this blog. I wasn't about to simply ignore his passing, but I also didn't have it in me to pay an appropriate tribute to this wonderful dog who enriched our lives. Until recently, I'd cry every time I thought about him. I still do, but I'm glad to say that more often, his memory makes me smile rather than cry. 

May 3: Weekly Update

 Hey hey hey! Lookie what we have here!

We have cabinets installed! All the kitchen and bathroom cabinets are installed and looking great! 

Master bathroom double vanity

The kitchen! The empty spot to the left of the pantry will be a fridge. The empty space opposite the island will be the stove/oven and wall-mounted microwave.

We've already started mentally planning where everything will go!

Weekly update: April 26

 

Our beautiful home!

I think we are at that point where there's just a LOT happening every week! Our brick and stone exterior is offically complete! All that's left is some painting. The trim and the siding that's in the entry way and along the entire back of the house will be painted a light gray while the exterior doors and garage doors will be charcoal gray. It's all coming together so fast!

As you can see, not only did they finish the bricks/stones, but they installed our garage door. I'm concerned that we will lose access to the house soon as I'm sure they'll be putting in locks as soon as appliances are installed. Then it'll be a "hurry up and wait" situation which may just kill me. We're about 45 days from getting the keys now... This is totally testing the patience of all of us!

On the inside, they have finished the mudding and taping and applied some light texture. I'd imagine paint (very light gray) goes on this week :)

My craft room. I just love the natural light.

Standing in the living room looking into the kitchen.

Kitchen island and dining room

Updates: Week of April 19

 

Bricks and stone are going up!

Oops! I totally forgot to update last week! Well, here's where we stand! We have drywall! We also have almost all our brick up and it's expected to be completed by the end of the week. They've already mudded and taped all the drywall, but I don't have pictures of that.

Blake and Liam standing off the kitchen island with the living room and dining room in the background.

Our living room! It will have an inset electric fireplace for heat and ambiance.

To the right is the front entrance. The room to the left is the guest bath and the bedroom will be my craft room.

I cannot believe how fast they work. The drywall was literally done in ONE DAY. The entire house! Not just that, but they did the drywall of the house behind us in the same amount of time. Speaking of the house behind us, we met our neighbors last week! They're a nice couple with a daughter younger than Liam.  They also have a long hair dachshund! We chatted and swapped information and we are now in touch on Facebook so we often swap information that we've heard. 

Weekly Update: Week of April 5

 This is a big week!

We have taken delivery of pallets of brick and stone for the exterior as well as several stacks of drywall for the interior. It's so exciting to watch everything move! I think right now, we may be in a pause state for inspections, but I imagine once those are done, things will just start flying! I'm so excited to watch the progress as we get walls and cabinets and flooring, and, and, and.

We got some big news yesterday, too! We now have a tentative closing date of June 10! That's 9 weeks from today. We've been here 8 weeks. I made the mistake of counting the weeks yesterday thinking it would give me happy feelings, but instead, it gave me a few moments of UMPH. BUT today I'm feeling positive and excited to have a date to count down to, even if it IS still 9 weeks away. It would be worse if we didn't like our current living arrangements. It's been really great living with our good friends and enjoying games and weird conversation nightly! 

Beautiful weekend

You know, I'm enjoying living in Oklahoma more than I thought I would. I knew that I'd find happiness here because that's what I DO. I find happiness where I go... But I'm actually enjoying it, not just making the best of it. I knew I'd struggle with the lack of mountains and water, but save for a few nights of falling deep into self-pity, it's been a non-issue so far. It'll likely pop up here and there, but it's not this heavy burden that I thought it would be.

First off, there is so much to DO here. Just over this past weekend and the weekends coming up are: Car races at the local racetracks, home and garden show, an oddities and curiosities expo, an in-person (fake) murder mystery where you work in teams and run all around Tulsa for clues, America's biggest gun show, and a billion other things I've not even discovered. 

And now, back to the scenery. I've lived most my life where mountains and/or water dominated the landscape. Now, wide open spaces have allowed for a new star to take center stage: The sky. The sky has always been just a thing in the background, but here, it's the focal point. There's no such thing as an ugly sunset in Tulsa. I've been so impressed with how beautiful the sunsets are! Now that storm season is just around the corner, I'm told the skies are going to be even more magnificent and that excites me. Apparently, the sky takes on crazy dramatic looks after a storm rolls out.

We're also slowly poking around at touristy things such as the blue whale on Route 66. This iconic Route 66 stop is about 5 minutes from our house. He's so cool!

Weekly Update: March 29 edition

Lots of new things happened this week! For starters, we have a furnace in the attic now! They've also started drilling around the plumbing lines and the bathtub and surrounds are now installed. Natural gas is also piped into the walls of the house now. I'm excited to have a natural gas stove again. I love cooking with gas!

This week's updates, March 22 edition.

WHAT IS NEW THIS WEEK?

We have a driveway now!

We have a driveway! So exciting!  

We also have verbal estimates that we may have the keys as early as the end of May. We've been expecting a June completion date so this is a nice little surprise. Of course, May is still a ways off, but that's okay!

We hopped into the model home yesterday and they have appliances in there and things are moving along really nicely. This is the same floor plan as our house, but in reverse. The entire floorplan is mirrored from ours. The other difference is that our cabinets (both in the the kitchen and bathrooms) will be white, not gray. I'm excited to see how it'll look in white because I think it'll really pop with the granite countertops!

The following pictures are from the model home. Ours will look incredibly similar with the changes I mentioned above.

Guest Bathroom

Bedroom in the front of the house. This will be my craft room.

Laundry room! I'll probably put up a cabinet or two in place of the shelving.

Master Bath with double vanity and oversized shower.

Kitchen and pantry! The empty spot to the right of the pantry will be the fridge.