From Canadian, TX to the Sooner State!

Well, happy Monday to everyone! Hope your weekend was fab!

Mine was! We went to Canadian, TX to surprise my cousin Josh for his birthday. He and my sister Holly share a birthday and it's actually today so happy birthday to them both!!!

Canadian is a little gem of a town that sits on the Canadian River in the Texas panhandle. It's about 100 east of Amarillo. This is where I was born and mostly raised. My Mom and her sisters all grew up here. My Dad and his family grew up here. My family roots run deep in Canadian, TX. I will forever know Canadian as my hometown.

Aunt Carla is the only one of the four sisters who still reside in Canadian. She owns and operates the Canadian Restaurant so if you're ever in town you better stop in and have a bite! The food is great! You must try the salsa they make fresh everyday........wonderful!!!

Carla's son Josh also lives in Canadian. He is my next youngest cousin and we grew up very close to each other. He's had many ups and downs in his life but really seems to have turned a corner recently and is doing very well. In celebration of this, his sister Kelsey decided it would be cool to all converge on Canadian and surprise Josh for this birthday so that's just what we did! It was wonderful!

Anyway, the point of the above rambling is that while in Canadian this weekend I was thinking about where I come from and why I'm where I'm at today. When people hear that I'm from Texas but moved to Oklahoma from Colorado they're always curious to know how I ended up here.

In 1986, my Aunt Cathy, Uncle Fred and their two young daughters Felicia and Fallon, moved to central Oklahoma from the Texas panhandle. It was quite a shock when they did! We had all lived fairly close to each other at that point and to hear my favorite Aunt was moving to Oklahoma was almost too much to bear.

You see, my Aunt and Uncle lost a baby several years before I was born. When I came along I think I was almost as much my Aunt Cathy's baby as I was my Mom's! She and I spent a lot of time together when I was a kid. She was the first one to put me on a horse and thus, started a rodeo "career" that would dominate my youth. My own folks weren't too much into horses and such so I always went to my Aunt Cathy and Uncle Fred's for all things horses and rodeo.

When they left Wheeler, TX for Oklahoma I wasn't far behind! I would come to Oklahoma every summer and we'd hit the rodeo and barrel racing jackpot trail! From the first summer I came here I thought it was some of the most beautiful country I'd ever seen and vowed that as soon as I could I would be living here, too!

My family and I eventually left the Texas panhandle for southeastern Colorado. Even though I made many, many great friends during my years in Colorado it was never "home" for me. I told everyone as soon as I was through junior college I was off to live in Oklahoma. I graduated from Wiley High School in 1993 and attended Lamar Community for two years. One month after my last semester was over at LCC I had all my worldly possession packed into my Chevy pick-up and was Oklahoma bound!!!

Now, I will admit that leaving Wiley that day was one of the hardest days of my life.
My little sister Holly had gone on to school that day and it was a blessing because the good-bye would have been much too hard. Saying good-bye to my Mom was hard enough. The three of us had been through so much together at that point and she was always a constant in my life. Now I had to say good-bye. She never tried to keep me in Colorado. She knew my heart was already in Oklahoma. It probably didn't hurt that her older sister would be there to look after her "baby!"

And so here I am! I consider myself an Okie for sure but I've never forgotten my Texas roots. It's it nice to go back there sometimes, take a look around and remember where you came from!

Cheers!
Shayla

Candid Adventures Bog

My sister Holly is now blogging! If you'll take a peek over to the "Blogroll" on the right side of this here blog, you'll see a link to her blog. It's called "Candid Adventures." Enjoy!

Brunchin' and Ropin'

This past Sunday I was invited to brunch with some gal pals of mine and I'm oh so glad I went! Misti had told me they were going to start having brunch the second Sunday of every month. Got an FB message from Angee not long after inviting me to attend and celebrate her birthday. I decided this was something outside of the box for me and something I needed to do.
So off I went to Legend's in Norman on Sunday morning! In attendence were Misti, Angee, Jennifer, Amber, Keely, Camille and Heather. Dear sweet Todd joined us a little later! We had such a nice time and a wonderful meal! I really do enjoy the company of these ladies! It's so nice to be around folks who have the ability to lift you up just by being in their presence. I like folks like that.
After brunch I scooted back to Chickasha and went straight to the Grady County Fairgrounds to watch the team roping. Jacob, Kelsey and Chris were all roping. It has been really cool to watch Kelsey develop into quite the little roper! I shouldn't be surprised by this....the kid is a natural born athlete and has excelled at pretty much every sport she's ever attempted. There is one exception however. She sucks at putt-putt golf!
Anyway, Jacob and Kelsey had Adyson with them and Cathy hauled the Taylor boys into town and we just had a great time! Several years ago, if you would have told me that spending an afternoon at a team roping wrangling 3 kids would be fun I would have said you were NUTS!!! But it was a great day and I'm learning to cherish days like that!

Cheers!
Shayla

800 Hits!

WOW!!! The web hit counter rolled over to 800 today! Thanks for taking the time to read our thoughts here on "Opinions, Observations and Other Smart-Ass Remarks!"

Ryan Adams

I think this might be my favorite Ryan Adams song. It's called "Oh My Sweet Carolina" and it is simply beautiful. I love the album version but this one is so raw and moving.



Elton John is a Ryan Adams fan and he did a cover of the song. He does a nice job with the it.



Cheers!

Memories of blizzards past.

I moved to Oklahoma from Colorado in 1995 and this is the first time I remember a blizzard hitting the Sooner State! Now back in Colorado this is not big news. A blizzard gets a crawl on the bottom of the TV screen but here in Oklahoma you can forget about watching any of your TV shows because all that will be on TV is weather coverage! I love a good snow storm so I'm not hating this weather all that much. It makes me think back to my first experience with a blizzard.
We had moved to Walsh, Colorado from Briscoe, Texas when my Mom re-married. My new stepdad owned a huge farm and ranch operation in Baca County. The blizzard hit and it hit hard! The snow drifts were so big our cattle were walking over the barbed wire fences! We had cattle scattered out all over the place! At that point, we had to get horseback! The horse I had at the time was a little mare named Shea. We saddled up and left the barn. The snow was so high the bottoms of my stirrups were dragging over the top of it! I don't know how that horse plowed through that snow all day but she did!
My sister and I have always thought it was funny how quickly the schools in Oklahoma will cancel classes during inclement weather. It took a major storm in Colorado for us to get a snow day! Around here, just the mention of a storm sends people to Wal-Mart in droves to stock up on lantern oil, water, potted meat and beans! My friend Chris works in a liquor store and yesterday morning they had run over $2000 in sales to storm-frenzied customers who didn't want to be without their booze in a white-out!!! Unreal.
The storm de-railed my plans to go to Yukon today to start celebrating Christmas with my family but in the grand scheme of things it's a small annoyance. We are all safe and warm and that is what's really important!
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cheers!

I'm feeling very Asian.

Went to the YaYa's Christmas party at Misti and Nathan's house last night. Also in attendance were Keely, Angie and Heather. Nathan was home but he stayed holed up in a back room. I think he just slept through all our fun! ;-)

It was so much fun to hang out with those gals! They are all so much fun and we spend most of the evening laughing! Ate some wonderful eats including sushi, had some yummy drinks, played a new, fun game called "Partini," played a little guitar and did a little singing. Good times!

I wisely spent the night at Misti and Nathan's house. Today we went out for one of my all time favorite meals: pho'. For those who don't know, pho' is Vietnamese noodle soup and it is simply wonderful, especially after a night of drinking! The healing powers of the soup broth does wonders for the body and soul! We tried a new place called Mr. Pho. It located by the HUGE Asian market on Western. Since I'd never been into an Asian market Misti thought we should go. It was so cool! So many different sights, sounds and smells! I loved it!

We continued our Asian themed outing by getting banh mi sandwiches to go from Banh Mi Ba Le on Classen Blvd. I brought mine home and heated it up for supper and it was sooooo good!!! Next time I'm gonna order it and eat it fresh! I'm sure it will be even better that way!!!

Overall, a great weekend spent with fab friends! As of tonight, all my Christmas gifts are wrapped, tagged and ready to be delivered! Bring on Christmas!!!!!!!!!!

Cheers!