MabelandJean

Our New Year started with a Bang!

On January 11, 2015 · 4 Comments · In Life

Well, our new year started with a bang, actually two! As 2014 rolled into 2015, fireworks went off on the Fayetteville square and watched them from the porch. This is fast becoming one of my favorite events. Feel free to join me on the porch next year, let’s say around midnight on December 31, 2015! The second bang happened a few days later. I hit a wall with my car. I did not even realize I was going to hit the wall, so I was quite surprised when the resulting sound was a very loud BANG. Oh well, life goes on.

Moving on, Emily spent New Year’s eve in Tulsa with her brothers. A good time was had by all but I only have a picture of James and Emily.

Emily and James on New Year’s Eve

We also took a trip to Crystal Bridges Museum to see the State of the Art exhibit. You can click on the link and read about it. The process the museum went through to pick the 100+ artists is fascinating. The show runs for another week if you want to go see it. Here are some pictures:

State of the Art #1

State of the Art #2

State of the Art #3

State of the Art #4

State of the Art #5

This exhibit will not go down as my favorite but I was certainly glad I went to see it.

Every time we go to Crystal Bridges we are so happy that we live so close. Even though it is winter, the grounds were gorgeous and the sun was shining.

Gorgeous grounds at the museum

Emily enjoying the sunshine at Crystal Bridges Museum

Emily’s 3 week visit zoomed by and before we knew it, she was headed home. Right before Randy took her to catch her flight, we went out for one more meal. My sisters and their husbands joined us and there might be pictures.

We “did” lunch

Apparently there was some great conversation going on at lunch

January is in full swing. Randy, James and Patrick start classes this week and Emily is headed to the Middle East for a business trip. I am looking forward to driving the carpool or as Mary Jean calls it, the Cathy Cab! Life goes on after the thrill of Emily’s visit is gone.

Hope everyone’s 2015 is going well so far. Fill me in on your hopes and dreams.

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How we spent Christmas and other holiday pictures! AKA a December to remember.

On December 28, 2014 · 6 Comments · In Life

Well folks, this will go down as a December to remember! Having Emily home for 3 weeks was fabulous and we tried to fit one of everything into the schedule. We hit museums, restaurants and did a wee bit of shopping. Since Patrick wasn’t able to join us for Christmas, we made a quick trip to Tulsa to take him out for a holiday dinner. We also got to see siblings, cousins and friends. Here are a few pictures:

Emily and Carla after running the Jingle Bell 5K

Camel rides in downtown Fayetteville

a few of the many lights from LIGHTS of the OZARKS

Some of us also went to Brats and Brews and others went to a Razorback basketball game:

Randy, Bucky, MJ and Ray went to see the Razorbacks play!

Once James got to Fayetteville, we loaded up the car and headed to Big Cedar Lodge on Table Rock Lake for several days. Just like the past 6 Christmas Eve’s, we headed to the Worman House for dinner. Patrick, I missed my dance partner but managed to have a great dinner anyway. Christmas day we woke to the sun shining over the lake. I called it a Christmas miracle since the dreary days have been the norm this month.

The sun shining on Christmas day.

While we were up in Missouri, we ate much, hiked some, toured some and drank a bit of holiday cheer.

My attempt at cooking Christmas dinner

Hiking the Ozarks

The vistas are gorgeous in the dead of winter

Southern Missouri

I was in rock heaven

Randy braving the waterfall in 32 degree weather

James as tour guide

It was really, really, really cold!

Gorgeous views

Obligatory Cave picture

Mom with kids picture

After we took the golf cart ride, we were ready to move inside and have some warm libations.

James inside the Top of the Rock with bony friend

Warm drinks for all please!

Emily and James also tried out the new spa at Big Cedar Lodge and were pretty impressed. Nothing like massages and steam rooms to make a trip complete.

We are back home in Fayetteville and still have some December left to fill. Planning a trip to Crystal Bridges Museum and hopefully a few more wonderful meals before Emily heads back north. Going to miss that child of ours but so glad she brought merry and bright to our holiday time.

And last, but certainly not least, the Razorbacks will play the University of Texas on Monday night! Let’s just say “Woo Pig Sooie” and leave it right there.

Wishing you a Happy New Year and hoping your holidays were great. Fill me in with details if you want to share.

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Holiday season is in full swing!

On December 8, 2014 · 8 Comments · In Life

The “Holiday Season” is in full swing around here. We spent a wonderful Thanksgiving in Kansas City on the Plaza. James and Patrick were able to join us but alas, Emily was not there! It was a Voight fest for sure. Brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews rounded out the group. Sadly for us, Pat and Martha were “feasting” in the Florida sun. We missed them and several others. We ate, we drank, we watched football and we did that over and over. Thanksgiving night was spent at the 85th Annual Plaza Lighting Ceremony. It did not disappoint.

Plaza Lights and Fireworks

Randy and James Selfie

On Friday we did a little bit of shopping and headed to round 2 or 3 of Voight Family food fest. Saturday morning found us at a breakfast buffet doing what we seem to do best! When we did leave the table, a trip to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art to see the Plains Indian exhibit. It was packed but a wonderful show. Here are the pics:

The Plains Indians exhibit at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

The exhibit was large and these pictures do not do it justice. We also went through part of the first floor permanent exhibit. These pictures below are for my daughter:

And we also got a shot of the lawn that was peppered with TIPIS!

The lawn of the Nelson-Atkins

We managed another meal at the River Market that was fabulous.

The River Market in Kansas City

I am stopping here because I am hungry! Just kidding but figured you were worn out by now. Hope your holiday season is going as well as ours, let me hear from you!

8 Comments

Nuts and Bolts!

On November 16, 2014 · 5 Comments · In Life

Well continuing our autumn road trips, we headed east to the Buffalo National River area. You can read all about this National River here. We drove a southern route through a beautiful area that was devoid of people and cars. We headed to Jasper for lunch and ran into 30-40 Porsches parked around the square. It was the 28th annual North Texas Porsche Club tour of the Ozarks. Those cars were gorgeous! After lunch we headed to Ponca, Lost Valley and ended up at the Steel Creek Campground. The trees were beautiful, the river was gorgeous and the bluffs were the icing on the cake. Here are some pictures:

Buffalo National River

Steel Creek Campground on the Buffalo River.

Middle Ordovician Everton Formation – I think

Buffalo River at Steel Creek

As we were heading towards home, we found out that Randy’s Corvette would be delivered in two days. The car had been at the “CAR DOCTOR” for 15 months. Here is the car right after it got delivered:

Randy’s ’62

The Red Corvette

I have always referred to this car as Randy’s FIRST Mid-life crisis purchase. We have owned it since the kids were toddlers. Randy had to add seat belts back then in order to load the preschoolers in the car for Saturday morning breakfast runs! During the 15 months the car was being worked on, it got new leather seats, refurbished carpet and LOTS of nuts and bolts type work. In fact, Randy got a bag of bolts that showed the wear and tear of 50 years of driving! Welcome home red!

Yesterday was the LSU-Arkansas game, played here in Fayetteville. The weather forecast was so dismal that my sister and her husband decided not to attend. Well, James jumped at the chance to use their tickets and Randy joined him. They were dressed in 100 layers, heat packs in their pockets and money for hot chocolate. I dropped them fairly close to the stadium and wished them luck. Well, they must be good luck charms for the Razorbacks as we won! WPS!

Take a look at my unusually pudgy guys:

The Razorbacks “Good Luck Charms” headed to the Arkansas-LSU game

They definitely enjoyed the game and the whole town was on Dickson street after the game celebrating the win. Suffice it to say it was a LOUD night. Today we hibernated in the house while it sleeted and snowed outside! Hope it is warmer where you are!

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Caving on a warm fall day!

On November 2, 2014 · 8 Comments · In Life

Well, because we are retired, we took another trip and this time we went caving on a warm fall day! James was visiting us, so we ran up to Table Rock lake for a few days. We did some eating, some listening to great music and some relaxing. On our way home, we made a couple of stops to enjoy the gorgeous fall weather and foliage. We took a cave tour and had a wonderful tour guide. I had not been in a cave for many a years and I enjoyed it, bats and all!

Here are the pictures:

James + Cave = Joy

Gorgeous

More Cave

Yep, a couple of interesting people

James in the gulch

Cave “artifacts”

BAT!!

Cave

Cathy in a cave

James!

We also went to War Eagle Mill for a visit and lunch. I had not been there for 20-30 years! Luckily the crowds from the annual craft fair had all gone home!

War Eagle Mill

War Eagle Mill Is on War Eagle Creek and it is a working mill. I must admit that our lunch there was excellent. We took a few more pictures and then headed the car towards home.

Bridge of War Eagle Creek

War Eagle Creek

That is most definitely all I have! Hope your fall is wonderful also.

8 Comments

October! Melancholy, Baseball and Cooking School

On October 26, 2014 · 9 Comments · In Life

Well, October has been full of crazy emotions, sports and gorgeous leaf watching. To start off this post let me tell you that melancholy, baseball and cooking are not normally in my lexicon. This October has brought all three of these to the forefront. Let’s start with the melancholy. Mid October is a bit of an emotional time in my life, as both my parents died in this month. October 14th is my dad’s birthday and then, WHAM, the 15th brings the anniversaries of their deaths. My dad died three years ago on the 25th anniversary of my mom’s death. While that may be hauntingly beautiful, combine it with an incessant blowing wind and you get melancholy! Wind has the ability to make me restless. It always suggests to me that the world is unsettled. I guess we all have our weird sides! Anyway, on a windy October day, my thoughts turned to my parents. When my mom died, dad decided to stay in Tulsa and help us raise our newborn daughter. Little did he know that he would, eventually, help us raise three kids!

Papa and the kids!

My parents’ graves
Check the dates!

Luckily, after 24 hours, the melancholy moved on!

Randy is a HUGE Kansas City Royals fan. Suffice it to say that the World Series win 29 years ago was the beginning of our decision to start a family. So, the Royals being in the World Series after that many years means we are GLUED to our television. Now if you know me, you know I despise baseball. In the spirit of being a loving wife, I am watching the series with pleasure. GO ROYALS.

When your sisters ask you to go to cooking school, you go because you can spend time with them. There are three things for me to say about cooking:

I know how to cook
I am a pretty decent cook
I hate to cook!

In fact, when we were remodeling, I did not want a kitchen. Randy had to pick out the appliances and he did a fabulous job!

The kitchen

In other news, the weather has been absolutely gorgeous! Well, I am off to cook dinner and watch the Royals but no melancholy until next October!

What in the world have you been up to?

9 Comments

Two Guys named James, two trips, and lots of leather!

On October 5, 2014 · 5 Comments · In Life

Well, there are two guys named James in my life, one my brother and one my son. This blog is about both of them and what they have been doing lately! Let’s start with the trip the elder James and his girlfriend, Christy, took to the Osage. The occasion was to enjoy the National Indian Taco Championship, which is held in our hometown of Pawhuska. They like to stay at the Whiting Bed and Bath overlooking downtown and the festivities. They also took in the rodeo, the Prairie Preserve and Woolaroc Museum. Here are the pictures they shared with me:

Indian dancers

Dancers

Beautiful!

Great shot

Group shot

The Tallgrass Prairie Preserve was looking good and the Bison were enjoying the day.

James in the wild

The Bison

Gorgeous shot of the prairie

And here are the cowboys:

At the fairgrounds

On Sunday, they headed to one of my all time favorite places, Woolaroc Museum! One of the strangest exhibits at the museum has to be the “shrunken heads”. I kid you not and here is the picture:

Shrunken Heads

We all have nightmares dating to our childhood visits to this exhibit!

Thanks James and Christy for sharing your trip and your pictures.

Well, enough about THAT James and his trip. Let’s move on to the other James, my son. He is visiting us in order to help me in the studio. So far we have managed to make 6 to 7.5 bags, 3 half finished wine carriers and one credit card case. In case you don’t believe me, here is the evidence:

Clutch for Camilla

Bags to sell at the Four-Legged Bird

New Bag Experiment with James doing a fabulous job of modeling

Need to finish these wine totes!

And after two days of hard work, we headed to the Corvette show in Eureka Springs. We also added some sight seeing, as James had not been there for years.

The one and only Corvette picture I managed to snap!

A visit to the historic Catholic Church in Eureka Springs

James at the Crescent Hotel

Beautiful, but cold, fall weather

And we managed to eat a couple of meals over the three days. We had breakfast at Little Bread Company and James’ favorite dinner, chili dogs, at our house.

Little Bread Company

James loves my chili

OH, did I tell you that Randy is the most loyal fan that the Kansas City Royals have? Well, he is. Suffice it to say that we are watching!

Okay friends and foes, that wraps up the multi James edition of my blog. Are you enjoying the fall weather where you live? Hope so

5 Comments

Bikes, Blues and BBQ 2014 is in the bag!

On September 28, 2014 · 1 Comment · In Life

Well, Bikes, Blues and BBQ 2014 is in the bag. It is 4 days of crazy right outside our front door! The annual rally consists of 400,000 people, too many bikes to count, music and food. Vendors started setting up at 6 am Monday morning to be ready to open on Wednesday afternoon. Many, many residents of Fayetteville head way out of town during this event. The noise is LOUD, the traffic is crazy bad and a lot of local stores close down. This is our second year of BB&BBQ and once again we managed to survive and even thrived. The hardest part is not being able to get to our house if we drive the car, so walking was the primary mode of transportation.

We also had some visitors during the first two days of the rally. Randy’s brother Pat and sister-in-law Martha came down from Kansas City. My brother, Rogers, was in town for a night for work and our son James came to visit. We had a really lovely dinner on Dickson street.

My brother Rogers

Pat and Martha

Besides great food, which included a scrumptious dessert, there was lots of great conversation. Main topics were vintage cars and classic rock and roll music!

After dinner, several people went down to the main stage to hear some music. Other people might have stayed home! Next day we went in search of the BBQ portion of the rally. We were not disappointed!

Going out for BBQ

Checking out the food

We found what we were after:

The BBQ part of the rally

Life is good when the BBQ is wonderful.

Of course, the main focus of the rally is the bikes. Let me tell you that there were literally every brand, type and color of motorcycle that you might imagine. We took a few pictures:

My speed

Another Bike

More bikes

Bikes

It is all about the bikes and people watching

Dickson Street

People watching bikers

And the music venue was huge:

The main stage 2 blocks from our house

The “official” saying of the rally should be “I can’t hear you” or “What did you say”!

Well, that is a wrap. If you are planning to come for 2015, remember to get your reservations in early. Our two bedroom fills up early!

Hope your weekend was a tad bit quieter.

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Celebrating in Nature

On September 14, 2014 · 3 Comments · In Life

James finished his degree at OU at the end of August, so off we went to celebrate his accomplishment. James, Randy and I met up with Randy’s sister, Charlotte, at Big Cedar. You know it is our GO TO place! The weather was fabulous, the company great and the food was excellent. That is my idea of a great celebration!

We went on the golf cart tour at Top of the Rock, which takes you through a cave which comes complete with a bar! It was a beautiful morning for a drive through the Ozarks. Here are the pictures of some of the views and a few of the viewers:

Beautiful Ozark scenery

One of several waterfalls

Enjoying nature

Our gang

And there were several Amish built bridges over the ravines. They were stunning:

Amish made bridge…just don’t look down!

We also went back to Top of the Rock for dinner at the Osage Restaurant, which was as good at is gets. At sunset we went to the bar for the scenery with some spirits!

Randy and I

You go for the sunset

The happy grad!

Since the 3rd week of June, we have been on the go! I think it is time to stay home for a bit and maybe clean the house and do some grocery shopping. However, if Charlotte calls and wants to travel, we will be ready. Congratulations James on your graduation! Thanks for joining us to celebrate.

Did your summer go out with a bang?

3 Comments

Four layers and no cake!

On September 7, 2014 · 4 Comments · In Life

Well, as you know, we bought a house. It is a really cute house but it does have some hmm, shall we call them issues? Yes, issues work. Here is a picture of the master bedroom:

Can we say 80’s?

Patrick wanted to know if this wallpaper was EVER in style. After I broke the news that yes, people liked it once upon a time, I offered to remove it! Can we just say “Cathy is so STUPID” but nice! I scheduled two days to get it down and in shape for paint. HA HA HA. I started on the north wall and managed to get one strip off the wall. LO and Behold, there was another paper under this one. The only thing I can say is the design of wallpaper in the 60’s was better than the one in the 80’s. As I proceeded to remove a navy blue plaid from the same area, I hit an orange painted wall. Success! Or so I thought. The paint was coming off in sheets because….it was painted over yet another wallpaper. After removing the paint and 80 year old glue, we hit plaster! Woohoo. There was even some carpenter’s notes written in pencil on the wall. Okay, 1 strip down and 40 to go. I called in the big gun, aka James to help me. That went pretty well but still too slow, so Patrick and Randy joined in the fun. Here is the room after 1 3/4 days of wallpaper and glue removal:

Corners are the worst!

And several ladders come in handy!

Two of my removal heroes.

Getting there

Suffice it to say, if you are thinking of putting up wallpaper, just say NO! 80 year old glue was everywhere and wet gluey paper was sticking to places it should not have. So, just say no. There are two other, smaller areas with wallpaper and it will be a cold day in hell before I tackle that or it might be next week! I am wishy washy like that.

The two other bedrooms were painted a shade of something that could have been orange or peach or pink or something. The funny thing is the master paint we pulled down was the same color. Someone really, really liked that color OR maybe during WWII it was the only color available?

Take a look:

Bedroom color in two rooms

James is moving in this week, so Randy decided to paint before the furniture arrived. He had paint helpers for part of it. James and Patrick helped when they could. In progress: