Oohhhhklahoma!

This past week was spent in Oklahoma, visiting with family and spending time with my mom who flew down from Michigan. I picked her up in Kansas City last Tuesday, and on Wednesday we headed to McAlester, OK to see the maternal side of my family. It was alot of driving but it was so worth it! Oklahoma is beautiful. I'm in a small majority who believes this, but I don't care. I loved OK when I lived there and I miss it. This trip strengthened my desire to move back there someday. 

We stayed at my grandma's house, which is incidentally the house she grew up in, so it always feels so old fashioned to me, but in a good way. We visited with her the first day. On the second day, we took a drive to Shawnee to visit my Aunt Doris and do lunch at Cracker Barrel, where I tried catfish for the first time. It was actually pretty good, though I was warned that catfish that's not farm raised is a bit fishier. Grandma drove, which was nice, and I got some actual road trip knitting done. 

On Friday we hung out at my Aunt Sue's house, visiting her, my Uncle Sonny, and his wife Shirley. More knitting time for me. As much as I like being around my family, I very rarely have anything to add to the conversation, so I'm pretty quiet. Knitting kept me from feeling awkward. That night we went and visited with my mom's brother and his wife. Lauren is such a sweetheart and an amazing cook. She made our meals all week, and I know feel the need to find a way to duplicate her breakfast quiche, her banana pudding, and her manicotti. In exchange, I helped her with some knitting. 

We visited another aunt, did dinner at Sue's again, got lost in McAlester, and spent some more time with Monte and Lauren. I bonded with family and finished a pair of socks for Mom. I even got a little tipsy on German beer on Saturday night. It was good to get away and see people, and it was great for my mom who hasn't seen her family in several years. 

Unfortunately, I had to take her to the airport today and end our time together. I've been pretty sad today, but all good things come to an end. Like most quality times with family, there was alot of laughing, a few tears, and some great home cooked foods. 

Now, I have to look forward to the next few months and the holidays. My goals for the next couple of months are to get our finances in order and caught up on a few straggler bills. Nanowrimo starts Monday, and I'm ready to get the concept in my head down in story form. I have three parties to plan or help plan, a bunch of knitting to do, and some cleaning and organizing. I'm also going to give online writing a chance over at Triond. It feels a little more laid back than AC, so I'm going to try to get some chain of thought words on specific topics written over there for some page hit goodness. 

Good to be back!

ALF