INOKWACA: MAY I give you a long-overdue update?

Friday, May 31, 2013

MAY I give you a long-overdue update?

What have we Smiths been up to in the merry month of May? Plenty!

Here is the month in review -- in pictures.

Our Compass Church "community groupies" teamed up on Cinco de Mayo to paint the walls of a local thrift shop. We didn't spill or splatter a drop of paint in the process. And we didn't pop any tags. :-P

On May 17th, we found ourselves at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington (What a catchy name!) cheering on the Texas Rangers. Despite being part of a very noisy crowd, we couldn't yell loudly enough to change the final score of 2-1, in favor of the Detroit Tigers.

Win or lose, we still enjoying watching the Rangers play ball.

Decoration Day 2013 -- Enid, OK

Cousin Linda flew into DFW from SFO for the weekend. She traveled with us to Oklahoma to "decorate" for Memorial Day.

Before there was a Memorial Day, there was Decoration Day. After the Civil War, Northerners created the as-we-know-it-now national holiday (Memorial Day), which was patterned after Decoration Day. Originally, this "celebration" was intended to establish spiritual connections between present and earlier generations. Whatever the reason for its existence, or no matter what it is called, this was a holiday that my mother-in-law valued, so we carry on her tradition of decorating the graves of loved ones. We left no (grave)stone unturned...Well, we didn't actually turn anything -- except for turning or straightening and reaffixing the letter "C" on the sign at the Lutheran cemetery.

We spied this "decorated" truck in Enid. Liesey texted a picture of this beaut to Millie Girl (Who opted NOT to go along on the Okie decorating tour.) and told her that we were buying it for her first car. She was a little bit concerned -- for a minute, or two. I think Millie would look good behind the wheel of this truck. She'd be turning heads, for sure...

More tasty OK vittles were found -- canned skunk in addition to the ever-popular(?) stewed possum. This would be reason enough to become a vegetarian. Mmm Mmm good!

We visited with OK family and friends, and even managed to help the Davidson twins celebrate their high school graduation.

It's always fun to get to see sweet friends!

On our drive back to Texas, we stopped near Moore, OK, to drop off Daughter #1. She was meeting up with our son and a group of volunteers from our church. This group of Texans spent the week working with Operation Blessing on part of the tornado clean-up operation. We are so thankful that our two oldest were able to experience this firsthand.

While M and A toiled and sweated away in Oklahoma, the rest of us were having fun back in the ol' Cowtown. We took Cousin Linda on a quick tour of several Ft. Worthy sights.

First Stop: JFK Tribute