The boys were working out in the garage with Pantera blaring on the radio as our next bad front hit the Coweta area last night.  I think the testosterone was coursing heavy in their veins.  I panicked hearing a tornado was on the ground just a couple miles west of Coweta, and directly over both of my daughters homes...my husband, Forrest and his two weightlifting buddies just sky watched. 

They refused to go with me and got left behind as I high tailed it, 90 to nothing,  over to my sister's place to jump in her underground shelter. Our neighbors have a shelter near our back yard, but you can only fit so many people in one.  We watched the huge, ominous front move just a mile behind my sister's acreage. 

Thankfully, my daughter Jessica and her family were able to take shelter in her safe room, as the tornado ripped through the countryside, just a mile away from her home, and my daughter Skylar and her babies made it to my sister's storm shelter in time.   A few roofs were ripped off, but no injuries were reported in our area.

After seeing the devastation in Moore, Oklahoma on Monday, I have developed a whole new respect for Mother Nature. 

From now on, all you tough, weightlifting, metal-heads are on your own, I'm heading to the cellar! 

This is a photo of the cell that was less than a mile away from my daughter's home.

What a blessing to have so much incredible talent in our great state of Oklahoma!  

Every song in the benefit concert for the storm victims feels like home.

I am in tears. 

Blake Shelton has got to have one of the biggest country hearts ever!

God bless all the entertainers that are taking the time to raise funds for the tornado victims.

God bless America!!

I posted a few photos of our trip to Moore, OK yesterday with the permission of the families that we helped. Not to offend or lighten the situation, but to show that there is still so much help that is needed for many, many days to come. We were not the bless-ers...we were the bless-ies~~

The Tyne's family brought a snow cone station and their inflatables and let the local children have a blast playing. One mother told me that was the first time her child really played since the storm. We got to meet, visit with, and pray for some very incredible families.

I asked for prayers that God send us to the exact spot we were needed. Well...as Monty, Forrest, several of our youth from FBC and I were heading out, I told the kids a story that I heard of a man that squeezed 22 people in his 8-12 person shelter. Then off we went in Forrest's truck with shovels, etc. in tow. Within 15 minutes, we came to a place where we were led to stop. We came to a brick wall that had, "Thank you Jerry...you saved my family," spray painted on it. Only a few interior walls of the home remained. We began to help in that area, and got the story on Jerry. He was the hero that continued to open his shelter to people as the storm hit directly in their addition...he was the man that squeezed the 22 people in his small shelter.

If you have the opportunity to go help in Moore, just pray that God sends you exactly where you need to be. For 17 miles back, where we were at, it was like a match stick village---it made my heart so happy to see the volunteers pouring in on the interstate to help. Oklahoman's are a tough lot to beat, and there were volunteers coming in from all over the country as well.  The local churches in Moore, Oklahoma are organizing a lot of the effort.

Forrest got to shake Jerry's hand and tell him thank you. Of all of the thousand places we could have been, God put us right where we needed to be.

Volunteers are still needed in Moore, Oklahoma for many, many days to come.  Our prayers continue to be with all of the families affected.

It's a gorgeous morning in Coweta, Oklahoma.  On my walk today, I noticed some property for sale in our addition. 

Nice lot, but the house it a bit small...what do you think---three, four bedroom?

I hope whoever purchases the home has a miniature Schnauzer.  

The house could use some landscaping...maybe some miniature roses? 

While cleaning house today, I determined that the generic version of the Magic Erasers do not work as well.  They are more like Mediocre Optical Illusion Erasers.  

(I think they should put that as a disclaimer on the package.)

I AM ONLY BUYING THESE BAD-BOY ORIGINALS FROM NOW ON!  LOVE THE MAGIC ERASER~

My dear friends,

Words have no meaning, no value, they cannot even come close to conveying my sadness in the light of the loss of life and property in my home state of Oklahoma this morning.  

There are still those that are unaccounted for, many of them being precious children that were trapped in an elementary school in Moore, Oklahoma.

Prayers for the disaster relief workers, and all our friends and family in the affected areas...Prayers for Oklahoma~

___________________________________________________

Please share the number below, for a text to donate to the American Red Cross---There is also a number and address for the Salvation Army, and those donations will go directly to the Oklahoma City relief efforts.

The tornado in Moore is being called the worst one in U.S. history. 

It's a cloudy day here in Coweta, Oklahoma.  Severe weather is expected to move in again late this afternoon. 

I had a busy weekend, and was a bit frazzled this morning.  Maybe it was the weather that had me unsettled.  My son Forrest came into the dining room and had the most wonderful idea.  "Mom, will you come sit outside with me for just 10 minutes...it's really nice outside?"

Hmm...sit outside and do nothing for 10 minutes.  Nothing?  No phone, no laptop, no laundry, no noise.  "Alright, I'll give it a shot!"

Forrest grabbed two lawn chairs from the back of his pickup truck, set them out on the sidewalk in front of our house, and told me to sit.  As we sat and visited, I heard the birds singing, and saw two crimson cardinals flitting around our tall, green, oak tree.  Even though the skies were overcast, and it was a bit humid, a cool breeze blew around our faces.  I took the time to actually look at the flowers that I had worked so hard to get planted in my flower beds this spring. 

Just 10 minutes of sitting outside with my son---doing nothing was heavenly this morning.  It was rejuvenating and mind clearing.  It was just what I needed.  Good idea Forrest!

I was able to get back to pruning shrubs, cleaning, laundry and even made some clean eating triple chocolate chip muffins.

Here is the recipe for the muffins I made today.  It's one of my favorite recipes.  Amazing if you like chocolate and try to eat clean when you can.  Just delicious!  

I'm packing them up to take to my sisters.  More tornado warnings heading our way---so thankful she has a cellar.

__________________________________________

Triple Chocolate Chip Clean Eating Muffins~~

Ingredients:

1 3/4 c oats

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 (12-cup) muffin pans with foil cupcake liners, or spray muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.

In a blender, (or food processor), mix all of the ingredients together, except for the chocolate chips. Blend until oats are ground and mixture is smooth.

Place mixture in a bowl and gently stir in 1/2 of the chocolate chips (set the rest aside). Scoop mixture into prepared muffin pans.

Place muffins tins in the oven for 10 minutes.  After 10 minutes, remove muffins from the oven (but don’t shut oven off), and distribute the other half of the chocolate chips on top of each muffin.

Place  the muffins back into the oven and bake for an additional 2-5 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. 

Cool muffins before removing from pan. ENJOY!!!

Servings: 12 Big Muffins or 24 Smaller Muffins

Calories: 116 Calories Per Muffin or

These are the best muffins!

No guilt~~

I enjoyed working in my flower beds this morning---Hoping we're not in the path of the severe storms that are hitting Oklahoma today~Prayers are with everyone that has been affected by the tornadoes. 

For my friends that don't live in tornado alley, this is a photo of the kind of devastation the twisters from yesterday left behind.  It's like a bomb went off in Shawnee, OK.  Homes were leveled down to their foundation.

Today another large front is moving in, and could be even bigger than yesterday.  Prayers for all the folks who were affected by the storm last evening, and for safety today. 

A super cell, possible EF4 tornado, (aka bad boy) is making it's way across our area of Oklahoma.  

We are getting ready to head to my sister's farm so that we'll have an underground shelter to take cover in.

The buzz around our house at the moment, is my husband and Forrest running around grabbing all of Forrest's guitars off the walls, and putting them into their respective cases.  They're putting them in the closet for safekeeping.   

Prayers for all the tornado victims in the Edmond and Shawnee Oklahoma area this evening.

Be safe out there all.

THE SUPER

CELL THAT

HIT THE SHAWNEE, OK AREA THIS EVENING--

Wicked weather is to be expected today and tomorrow.  My oldest daughter is scared to death of the storms, and thankfully had a safe room put in her garage this last spring.  Me...I think I could almost be a tornado chaser.  "Twister" is one of my favorite movies. 

I know that I should develop a healthier respect for tornadoes.  Wishing everyone in our neck of the woods a safe evening---stay close to your "fraidy-holes!"

We had the best time tonight with some of the graduating Seniors from our Sunday School class.  We traveled to Krebs, Oklahoma for some of the best Italian food in the state. 

Pete's Place was established in Kreb's (Little Italy) in 1925.  It is a family style Italian restaurant, and boy did we get our fill of pasta, meatballs, and chicken Parmesan. 

It's definitely worth writing home to "mama-mia" about.

Wishing God's greatest blessings on all of the graduating Seniors across the country this week!  The world is your MEATBALL!!

                              AT PETE'S PLACE IN KREB'S, OK

          WITH SOME OF OUR GRADUATING SENIORS FROM FBC

          (Monty, Samantha, Makinze, Bekka, me and Dillon)  Fun night!

        OUR AMAZING, FUN LOVING, YOUTH PASTOR, BRETT    WHEELER AND HIS WIFE BILLIE JEAN WITH SAMMY,      MAKINZE,BEKKA AND DILLON ~~

I keep having to break out the rainy day activities for the grand babies.  Finger painting and home-made playdough is great fun, but I'm ready to get them in the swimming pool.  Less mess to clean up!

Here's to rainy spring times in Oklahoma.

Landon, Clara Jane and I made home-made koolaid playdough.

Here is the recipe!

KOOLAID PLAYDOUGH

1/2 C. salt

2 C. four

2 pkgs no sugar added Koolaid

2 1/2 Cups boiling water

3 Tblsp vegetable oil

Mix flour, salt and Koolaid in large bowl.

Add vegetable oil to boiling water and slowly add water into flour mix.

Stir with spoon until cool enough to knead by hand.

Store in plastic bags or airtight containers.

Smells so good.  The kids loved it!

I am so stoked for the new Star Trek movie that opens this week!  Hope it is a good as the last one.  I need this tee...Spock rocks!

Looking forward to having a "logical time" when I go to the theater to see it this weekend!

Happy Mother's Day to all you wonderful, hard working,  tender hearted, caring, mentoring, nurturing, beautiful Mamas out there!!

I hope you had a very blessed day.  It was gorgeous here in Oklahoma today.  I had a fantastic day with my brood!

Love to all!

I LOVE MY FAMILY~~I thank God for each one of them every day!

I had time to myself today, and  was able to get back to the writing process on my second novel, "Rock Angel."

  I even played around with some graphics and made a little mock cover to make it more real to me, and provide some incentive to put pages between a real live cover.

Write, write, write...

Hopefully, within the next week or so I can upload a sneak peak chapter. 

I want to say a big thank you to all my "Red Dirt Rocker" readers as well.  You ROCK!

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=576095405763836

My lovely children do this to me each and every time I get carried away with the camera snapping.  This was one of their pre-planned poses from yesterday. 

I got the point...it was time to wrap it up, (or they were going to jump.) 

STOP IT MOM...WE'VE HAD ENOUGH! <3

All my children were born in Muskogee, OK.  If you happen to ever find yourself in Muskogee, be sure to take a drive through Honor Heights Park.  It is a beautiful, winding drive in the hills of Muskogee, and this time of year the azaleas are in full bloom.

My family had a wonderful time exploring the park yesterday.  I took 165 pictures...I had some pretty cute subjects to work with.  Love my okies from Muskogee!  And all my precious grand babies too...it was a gorgeous day to play in the park.

HONOR HEIGHTS PARK PHOTO SHOOT~~ MAY 5, 2013

Does anyone else ever go to a recipe on Pinterest that looks so good, but when you actually look it up to see what the ingredients are, there are fourteen paragraphs to scroll down of the bloggers, "ok...I dream about recipes all day, doodle pics of muffins, here's a photo of my hubby pouring the batter, these are great to pop in the lunch sack, here's an artistic photo of the casserole in my garden by my Swedish statuette, let me write an essay about my a day in the life of a city girl, living in a high rise cooking on counter top grill, and on and on and on...." Then I have to continue to scroll down for days and days just to get the recipe, or click on a whole other link------Just take a pic of your chocolate-chip-chunk-whatever, and post the ingredients in a no nonsense manner please.

If I have to wade through your, "oh-so-fascinating quip on a day in the life of a homemaker that lives on an alligator ranch", I will exit faster than your souffle will fall flat after slamming the door of your designer, gator covered toaster oven. Maybe it's just me. I'm weird like that---

I found a princess crown that Clara Jane got in a Happy Meal a couple of months ago. Clara wouldn't put it on, so I placed it on my head and deemed myself "Princess Ga-Ga."

I made the mistake of keeping the crown on,speaking in a proper Princess voice, and sprinkling Landon in dinosaur hunter dust...he will not let me take it off, and corrects me every time I return to my good old Oklahoma accent.

This Princess gig is not easy, (said in a hick-British accent.)

Unfortunately, no flowing gown or spindled curls for Ga-Ga---(more like pony tail,yoga pants and a glass house shoe.)

Start writing...keep writing...start writing...keep writing.  The invisible ink that is sloshing in my head must be put to paper~

I have piles of notes for my second book, "Rock Angel."  I have two chapters on zip file.  I have described it in detail to Jr. High students, whose eyes light up as they say, "Mrs. French, I want to read it!" 

Oh daily life, how you grab me by the collar and yank me away from my lap top.

I will not give up! 

I was Windex-ing my glass door that leads to the back yard this morning. I love how all of the tiny fingerprints are on the inside...nothing but dog nose smudges on the outside---how those little ones hang at the door and long to go outside and play~~and, of course, the pups want to come inside to see us-

Happy 24th birthday to my beautiful middle child, Skylar!

We had a fun evening of playing in the back yard and eating Mexican food.  I'll post my recipe for chicken enchilada soup later today. 

Love you my dear daughter, Skylar Whitney!!!  Wishing you the most blessed year ahead! 

                                             SKYLAR WITH HER BUNDLE OF JOY

                                                       BACK YARD PLAY TIME

                            WITH SOME OF THE G-BABIES--BEAUTIFUL EVENING