Remembering Her

The year 1920 signifies a lot in the world. It was the start of prohibition in the United States; it was also the year that women were granted the right to vote. There were big adventures in store for everyone here in the U.S.,  learning to adjust to the new ways of life. For one couple in Siloam Spring, Arkansas 1920 was the year that another child was born.

That child was my grandmother, Edith Dean Randolph, and the couple was Balis Franklin Randolph and his lovely bride Martha Ethel Hulet Randolph.

My grandmother had the opportunity in life to see many things. At the age of four my grandmothers parents packed up their life and moved from their hometown of Siloam Springs, Arkansas to Labette County, Kansas. My grandmother stayed in Labette County until she graduated from the Labette County High School.  Labette County still has a high school; it probably possesses a timeless difference from when a light footed, tall, slender and beautiful Edith Dean walked the halls.

Before my grandmother graduated from high school she saw big changes in the world and in the United States. Just two months and twenty days after her ninth birthday the stock market crashed. There were more people selling stock than there were people buying them. The day was named Black Tuesday, I don’t know what my grandmother was doing that day, possible practicing her multiplication tables or learning to write in cursive.

Of course this was not the only thing that my grandmother witnessed in her years in the Labette County School system. Discoveries like Pluto were being made, building like the empire state building were being completed, women like Amelia Earhart were making daring decision and Hitler was beginning his take over of Europe. There were also small town things happening. Parades, plays and auctions.

After graduation she continued in her studies, first at Coffeyville Community College and then at Pittsburg State University, attaining a degree in elementary education, something she would pursue until retirement.

In 1942 she married, leaving the Randolph name behind to take the name Harris. She married a dashing young navy man by the name of James Clifford Harris. James, my grandfather was a native of Coffeyville, Kansas, just miles from where my grandmother grew up. They were married on Aug. 22 in Joplin, Mo.

Edith Dean & James Clifford

As a professional my grandmother taught for 10 years at Cedar Bluff School in Montgomery County, Kansas. Followed by 10 years at Edgewood Elementary School in Coffeyville, Kansas.
While living in Kansas my grandparents had two children, the older, James Dean Harris, my uncle, and the younger, Rebecca Jane Harris, my mother.

In 1964, my grandparents and my mother packed up and moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma. My uncle was in college at that time. He is now known as Dr. James Dean Harris, a professor at my grandmother’s alma mater, Pittsburg State University (Go Gorillas!).

My grandparents raised my mother in Tulsa. She would later graduate from Nathan Hale High School and go on to have me as her first and only child, unless you count Havanah, the German shepherd, which I do.

I don’t want to offend my mother or my uncle, they have both accomplished enough in their lives for multiple posts on my blog, as did my grandfather, but this post is to remember my grandmother.

My grandmother spent 20 years teaching in the Tulsa Public Schools at John Ross Elementary. During her time at John Ross she saw many more historic events. The passing of the Civil Rights Act and the U.S. Sending troops to Vietnam. The first heart transplant and the first super bowl happened in her first years in Tulsa. In 1968 alone, Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were both assassinated.

The historic events that happen in my grandmother’s time at John Ross way out number the years she was there. Woodstock happened, the Beatles came and went, Watergate began and ended; we went to Vietnam and came home. A Vice President, and President resigned. The world cried when Elvis died. The Jonestown Massacre hit the news and Sony released the first Walkman. John Lennon was assassinated, Mount St. Helens erupted, the Rubik’s cube caught on, AIDS was identified as the ‘new plague’, PC’s were introduced by IMB, they were huge, a far cry from what I write this blog on. Michael Jackson released thriller, cabbage patch kids become popular and the Vietnam War memorial was opened. That is just 20 of the many historic events that occurred while my grandmother taught at John Ross.

My grandmother’s life did not end after she was done teaching, just as it did not begin when she started teaching. She was always a busy lady. She was involved in her church, Yale Avenue Christian Church, The Daughters of the American Revolution, Alpha Delta Kappa Sorority, Omni Book Club, Knife and Fork Club Brunch Bunch, American Association of University Women and Retired Educators Association.

I can’t imagine what it would have been like to be born in 1920, and I wonder if 70 years after my birth I will be able to look back and see as many historic, world changing event as my grandmother.

Listing the things, she did and the events she lived through does not begin to explain the magnitude of love I had for her. But it makes me feel better to be able to look back on her life and remember the amazing woman she was.

My grandma died two years ago today, in Edmond, Oklahoma. Two years ago today, and I miss her like it happened yesterday. Cliché, I know, but it is the best I can do to describe the longing I have to see her again and update her on what is going in my life.

James Randolph & Edith Dean stopped in for a photo in downtown during a date, or at least that is the story I heard

Harris Family Christmas from left: James Clifford, Edith Dean, Baby Rebecca Jane, James Dean



Grandma

Update on Life

Well, it has been a while, and I apologize for that. A lot has happened since the beginning of October but nothing to notable.

My mom and I finished my second marathon, her seventh on November, 15. As much as I wanted to beat her, I could not.

The San Antonio Rock n’ Roll Marathon was not at all what I was hoping for, I will include a full update on race day later. But in short, the race was boring from about mile 11 to mile 22. It was hot, humid and the water stops were not efficient. Both my mom and I finished slower than our goal, but a finish is a finish.

Above, a picture of Mom and I. Mark had us pose for a picture with our medals after the race

This race made me Thankful for the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon. OKC was my first but after running in the San Antonio marathon I can tell that it will most likely never top any others I run.

Oklahoma City is composed of volunteers they are peppy and all the water stops are manned by different businesses.

Since the business want good PR they make good water stops. I can say that I do not remember all of the sponsors of water stops at the marathon, but if there was a bad one I would remember that company. And while their water stop performance, probably has nothing to do with how they run their company. I can assume that I would not use their services.

If you live around the Oklahoma City area and are wanting to run a half marathon or marathon I would suggest the Oklahoma City Marathon, it is an inspiring fun race.

I will have a better idea of good marathons when I have more under my belt but for now, I will stick with OKC.

Ok, enough about marathons.

What else has happened since October? Let’s see, my mom celebrated her birthday the day after the marathon. Happy Birthday Mom, again!

Basketball season is well underway at work. All schools have started their seasons as of last night. Track, softball and baseball will all be starting shortly.

My Thanksgiving was good. I consumed too much food, but, in retrospect it was worth it because holiday food is my favorite.

That is all for now. I will try and update more frequently. Everyone should check out this video and their whole movement. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us-TVg40ExM

I saw it in church a while back and again yesterday. It makes me smile.

My Mom is 10 Years Cancer Free

One of the hardest moments I think I will ever face in life will be the day I lose my mother. Fortunately that day has not yet come. Ten years ago today, it was a different story. Because before that fateful Wednesday it was unclear what the faith of my mother would be.

My mom, my amazing mom, had been diagnosed with cervical cancer. Wednesday, Oct. 6 – ten years ago she had surgery to remove the cancer. So today, Oct. 6, 2009 is a big day. Not only is she STILL cancer free but she has been now for ten years.

Watching my mom in the months and years after being cancer free it seemed like the smallest things were momentous hurdles. Sitting up for the first time after surgery, walking for the first time, coming home, sitting up for the day and walking from the bedroom to the bathroom were all great accomplishment.

When the daily things became more routine, the weeks of being cancer free turned into months, what seemed like a lifetime later turned into a year cancer free. One entire year, that is a big deal. One year of doing or not doing anything is a big deal in most situations. A first birthday, a first anniversary, a first year sober, there are many things that people celebrate at a year.  And for my mom and our family, the big celebration came at one year cancer free. So today 3,846 days, count-less trips around the house, multiple marathons and ten, one years, later my mom is ten years cancer free.

I don’t think I can covey how lucky I am to have my mom around. Not only is she one of my best friends but there are so many things in life I don’t think I could have done without her.

I mean lets face it there were many high school projects and papers I would have never finished if it weren’t for my moms, late night or sometimes all night, help. And without a high school degree I would not have graduated from college or have my dream job of working at a paper. When I think back on eighth grade I don’t think about the fact that my mom had cancer although I do remember some memories that came after the cancer was gone.

One very vivid memory I have is after my mom got her driving privileges back after the surgery she started taking me to school. I can remember it being so cold outside, snow might have even been on the ground sometimes, but my mom would have a hot flash and roll down all the windows in the car. This does not seem that strange but remember that I told you there was snow on the ground. So while I was cowering in the front seat trying to wrap my self up in my coat the best I could my mom was pleasantly cool in the driver’s seat, like driving on a fall evening with the windows down.

There are many memories I have with my mom, things we did together, races we ran, events we executed, ceremonies she attend, late night grocery store runs we had,  and graduations I had. All of these things I am so thankful and bless that my mom was around to experience.

I could go on and on about my mom and the things she has done for me but if you know me or my mom you know that from the day I was born until this very moment my mom is one of the most important things in my life.

I LOVE YOU MOM! CONGRATULATIONS!

Mom and Me

Me and My Mom before graduation

Marathon #2

Marathon number two is creeping up on me. In less than 100 days (93 to be exact) I will be running in my second marathon. Now I had previously said that I was going to out train and finish with or hopefully before my mom on this run. As it stands now my mom is definitely out training me. I know she is out exercising for more hours a week then I am. Crud.

According to my training schedule I should be running everyday but Monday which is reserved for cross training and Friday which I am supposed to take off. Instead it works out that I am also taking off every other Saturday and most Sundays in addition to Mondays and Fridays. If I am going to even come close to finishing near or before my mom in this Marathon I am really going to have to pick it up.

Tomorrow I am scheduled to run a 6 miler. Which I plan on completing after I play in a charity softball tournament. If it were not a charity tournament I would not be playing, I assure you. I have never been good at softball, when I was a child they used to put me in right field, that is the one behind first base where hardly any balls go, and practically no balls go there when you are under 12. I can remeber standing out there and picking flowers or drawing in the dirt. My step dad told me the other day that it was a blessing when I found my niche in running. While this seems harsh, it is so so so true.

Anyways back to the marathon, I am hoping to finish the six mile training run in under an hour. This is a good goal, because I am hoping to finish in under 5 hours this time. Which means I need to be on or under 11:26 each mile. Which is not to far off my first marathon where my average mile was 12:17/ mile. But what I have to remember from that marathon was that I did not pace myself my first 10k each mile was around 10 min but by by my 32k my average mile had dropped to around 11:47.

Pacing myself this marathon will be another goal along with the goal to finished faster than my mom. I don’t know how I will fare and I am a little nervous, but once I get some consistent training under my belt for this marathon I hope to feel better.

Til next time, keep running through life.

Why ‘Go Greek’?

Why ‘Go Greek’?

Sorority recruitment season is upon us. Well at least the “us” that participates in fall recruitment. This will be my second year to not participate in sorority recruitment, and well, my mind yearns for it. I read the other day on facebook that my greek adviser was going to watch theme night skits. My mind immediately jumped to the joys of collaborating with friends to come up with something that we thought would ‘wow’ potential new members. A smile crept up from the corners of my mouth and before to long I realized that I was in fact day dreaming of the days of recruitment. Now don’t get me wrong there were moments during sorority recruitment that made me think I would never be happier when it was over. But now that it is over for good, I have to admit I spend more time wishing it was not.

In honor of recruitment I am going to post just a few of my personal benefits of being in a sorority.

There is the ever popular networking. This topic is pitched as join a sorority to meet people in sororities and someday it will pay off. When I head this as a new member I laughed, out loud I think. Yes, it is good to think of the future but as a freshman, I could barely fathom what the next semester would be like much less the rest of my life. But fast forward 5 years from joining a sorority and I can tell you that it can be beneficial to be greek. One example of how networking played a factor in my life, is my internship. Two months after college graduation I pack my car to the brim and left Edmond, the town I was born and raised in. I was on my way to Colorado. Aurora, to be specific. I had landed an internship with CAMPUSPEAK, Inc. They are an agency that represents college speakers. I found this internship from facebook, a social networking site. David Stollman, a speaker and co-founder of CAMPUSPEAK had posted his status to be something along the lines of CAMPUSPEAK was still accepting application for an internship with his company. I had been so inspired by David Stollman’s presentation’s to my college campus that I researched the internship and had my packet in the mail with in days. After I was hired I headed to Colorado to meet my roommates. I was going to be living with two other interns, both of which were strangers to me. Besides a few short conversations on facebook, I knew nothing about these two women who I had been living with. We hit it off fine and the six month internship went by fast. At first the only thing we had in common was that we were all greek. And, our first conversation the night when we all got there was about greek life. Now looking back on the times when I heard that networking would be beneficial to me someday I don’t want to laugh, but cherish the fact that it is true.

Another popular topic thrown out to new members of sororities is leadership. Join a sorority and you will become a leader. Now this one I can say is not always true. Sometimes the biggest benefit of joining a sorority is not becoming a leader but instead learning how to be a follower. While I do believe leadership is important, leaders are ineffective with out their followers. While I was in my sorority I was a leader and a follower. My first semester in I was appointed social chair, I was under the leadership of the Chapter Life Vice President. This was a big step for me, as I had not planned to get so involved in my sorority. During this time I learned to work with others, take orders and give them equally. The next year, I was chosen to be the on Executive Council and was appointed Chapter Life Vice President, I held other hats while a member of my sorority but this is not the time to list those. Just know that sororities give you amazing opportunities to step up and be a leader, accomplish things you never thought you could or never dreamed you would and they also give you the opportunity to understand how and why to take direction from others.

There are many points and benefits that I could list about being in a sorority, I could go on for hours about the things I learned, the people I met and the fun I had but I won’t do that in efforts to keep this blog at a decent length. I will share my last tip. Joining a sorority, developed my sense of me. It helped me grown and learn who I was going to be in life. When I graduated from high school I did not have much direction in life. I was a runner and I was going to college to run. Running was the biggest thing in my life. My first semester in college I was dating the boy from my senior year. He was in a fraternity and starting his second year of college as I started my first. My life got intertwined with his fraternity. The men in that fraternity were my friends and I felt at home when I was over there. I spent many a day over there hanging out with my boyfriend at the time, those guys and their girlfriends. I had the time of my life, but I had never considered that maybe being in a sorority was for me. That is until three girls from a sorority, I ended up joining, started befriending me. We hung out while or guys were doing fraternity things, once they took me for ice cream and I think they genuinely cared about me and who I was. After the second semester started they invited me to their house to hang out and meet their sisters. I was skeptical, I did like these three ladies but was a sorority for me? Was this what I wanted? Well needless to say sometime passed and I became one of them. I met women who I just knew I was destined to be friends with. And from that moment on it is history. I was apart of something that would be a part of me for the rest of my life.

Speaking of the rest of my life, let me tell you an awesome story about an alumni association that took me under their wing. When I moved to Denver to take that internship I talked about earlier, one of the first things I did was contact their alumni association. I called a lady named Barbara Hoover, left a message, told her who I was and that I wanted to come to their next event which just happened to be a pot luck in one week.

This is Barbara Hoover.

I waited a day or so and got a call back from Barbara. She might have been one of the sweetest people I have ever talked to. She immediately offered to give me a ride to the party and gave me directions to her house. Of course I left my house incredibly to early the day of the pot luck and ended up at her house like 30 min early. So I drove around the block and around her neighborhood for probably 20 min, I think one man walking his dog might have seen me drive by like 6 times…oops. Then the time came, I parked in front of her house, got out, grabbed my dish and rang the door bell. You would have thought I was meeting my long lost family member or meeting the president of the united states for the first time. I was so nervous. The door opened and there appeared Barbara, she was everything I had expected. She invited me in, finished getting her things together and we got ready to go. She informed me that we would be picking up one other member on our way. We did and we were off. Every time an event came up, from that month on, Barbara called to see if I needed a ride, I was so drawn to her as a person I always accepted. One month I even noticed she had a classic Oldsmobile convertible in her garage. She was  as cool as I had thought.

The last month I was there, Nov. 2008.  I went to Barbara’s house as I had every month before and we were getting ready to leave for a night of sisterhood and fraternity education. On these nights the alumni association in Denver has all their members get together memories from their collegiate days. Scrapbooks, new member books and other things to share. Barbara was still getting her stuff together sharing with me about pictures as we passed over them. If I am not mistaken I think Barbara graduated from Ohio in 1952. She showed me composites and other things from sorority days passed. It was bliss. As I think back to all the wonderful memories that were created in those six months with the Denver Alumni Association tears well up on the brim of my eyes and I tear up when I think of the women in that alumni association. Those ladies, the way the embraced me, even though they knew I would not stay with them forever was amazing. Their faces smiled every time I saw them. I was truly humbled by the generosity of those women and I hope that someday as an alumni I can embody the characteristics of my sorority to that extent.

So this is an extremely shortened list as to why ‘go greek’ but, it will do for now.

Marathons

This year I set out to run in the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon, and I did. My mom has done the marathon every year since it’s conception nine years ago, I think. She might have missed one or two, if any.

I started training in the middle part of January and did my best to follow Hal Higdon’s novice marathon training schedule. But, I will be honest some of those long runs that were suggest did not happen. By the end of the race I wish I would have followed his advice a little more closely.

Oklahoma stayed colder longer into the spring this year which made my desire to train less. Bad idea in the end.

When the last weekend in April came up on my calendar I was scared. I looked at the April 26, 2009 and wondered if I would survive.

Sunday morning, race day, I headed over to my moms. I had a peanut butter sandwich and had half a cliff bar for breakfast.  I washed it all down with some water. I was nervous, I showed up at my moms in my race day clothes. Which consisted of loose fitting shorts can’t remember the brand, an awesome sports bra from New Balance, a razor back top in yellow, New Balance socks, my ever trusty Asics this year they were the Gel Kanyos. I wear a lap watch and one bracelet.

I attached my bib number and my chip to my shoe and we headed out the door. We headed down town, found a parking spot and headed to the start line. At the start line we ran saw a couple who’s shirts said running in honor of Scott D. Williams. Scott was a co-worker of my mom’s at William E. David & Sons, now U.S. Foodservice. Scott was 24 from Tuttle and was two months shy of being a father for the first time. He was at the Federal Building making a delivery to the child care center. My mom approached the couple and they said that they were family members of Scott’s and they were doing the marathon for him.

We had 168 seconds of silence before the national anthem to remember those killed and then the anthem and then the race started shortly there after.

A side note on the Oklahoma City Marathon is that it is run completely by volunteers. Twenty volunteer chairmen plan, coordinate and implement the marathon. They over see the 6,000 volunteers that stretch the course.  This year the marathon brought in 19,300 runners from 49 states and seven foreign countries. The money raised during the marathon helps support the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial and Museum. Since the race started it has brought in more than $1.45 million the support the Memorial. The OKC Chamber found the race contributed an estimated $4.8 million in economic impact to Oklahoma City over the three days it was held.

The mission of the OKC Memorial Marathon is to celebrate life, reach for the future, honor their memories and unite the world in hope.

The Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum was created to honor “those who were killed, those who survived and those changed forever.”

Race day for the marathon was windy. For the first half of the marathon I could feel the wind but it was not until I crossed over the Hefner Parkway after Mile 13 that I thought I might give up. Once you cross over the parkway you turn right and then back left and run a portion of the race on the side of Lake Hefner, with the wind coming over the lake there were some points I think I might have been moving backwards. I felt very sorry for the some of the smaller, skinnier runner. I mean at least I had some mass to push through the wind with. From there my body just got more and more tired. By Mile 24 I had developed a pain in my knee that would not go away for 4 weeks after the marathon. The doctor said it was tendonitis. I think it was just my body being pissed at me for doing a marathon. But I finished.  My goal had been to beat my mom but her training was better than mine and she definitely out performed me in this one. She trained harder, ate better and ran faster in the race. My Mom finished in an amazing 5:01. That is five hours and one minute and twenty minutes before me.

I crossed the finish line at 5:21:03. Five hours one minute and three seconds. I was planning on finishing faster than that but for my first marathon I think I did ok, because I finished.

Some highlight of the marathon were the 4:20 pace group leader lady. Pace group leaders carried sticks adorned with balloons that were labeled with the times, this particular lady had just done Boston which was like 3 days earlier. I mean two marathons in a four day span, and a trip across the country, people like that are awesome. She was a great motivator, talked the whole time, it helped keep your mind off  the race and at each mile she would take a mile dedication and someone could speak up and dedicate the mile to someone, a mother, a runner or whom ever they would like. Needless to say I was only with her for a few miles.

Another great thing about this race were the 22 water stops. Each stop sponsored by a business and most of them had a theme. Some handed out more than water and PowerAde, additional items included bananas, pretzels, sunscreen, Vaseline and gu.

But the best addition comes around Mile 23, the Devon water stop hands out sponges and they are amazing. Cold and the are able to soak up moisture from your sweat drenched body.

There were spectators that lined most of the course. When you are running by houses people sit out on the laws sometime they offer you miscellaneous things such as chocolate, fruit, bacon and alcohol. The guy handing out shots was a joke but I wanted to take him up on it at a few points later in the race I wished I would have.

The Oklahoma City Marathon was an amazing one. I loved it and it has inspired me to do my next marathon. I was wanting to do White Rock in Dallas but it is so expensive. I was trying to decide between Tulsa’s Route 66 marathon, which would be good because I am a big fan of the history that comes with Route 66 and the Rock n’ Roll Marathon in San Antonio which is part of a series of Rock n’ Roll Marathons.

A girl at church is doing San Antonio with a group of women from the RunHers group out of Oklahoma City. I talked about it with my Mom and I think we have decided to do San Antonio. I am going to follow a Hal Higdon training schedule again hopefully this time it will work out better.

I will keep you up dated  on my training and preparation for the next marathon.

Settling In

Nothing over the top hysterical or exciting has happened since my last post. But as requested by Sarah, here is a general update on my life since my last post.

The new job is going great. I’m just writing my little heart out. Right now around Seminole County there is not an overload of sport going on, but enough. I have been told that come the start of the season I will be up to my eyeball in alligators. Well that is not exactly how it was said but I will be really busy. Just in case you did not know, I LOVE my job. It might be the best one I have ever had. Ok it is the best one I have ever had. Not that the others weren’t good but this is exactly what I have always wanted to do. Some day I do plan on changing the world but right now I’m just working on Seminole County.

My new house is starting to feel more like a home every day. Tuesday David came over and helped me edge the law, kill the nesting wasps and put away stuff inside the house. My neighbor Kevin owns the barber shop next door and he rode over my lawn with his riding law mower Monday. I do have my own lawn mower though so I plan on keeping up with my own lawn from now on but I thought it was so cool for him to do that for me! Yay.

I finally got furniture in my house so no more sitting on the floor for me. I will post pics soon of the house with furniture but for now I will just tell you. I already had a twin bed from college so that is in the guest bedroom. Then Mark bought me new furniture from Mathis Brothers and it was delievered 2 weeks ago. I got a  new dining room table, it is one of those pub height tables so you sit up high. It is a dark brown color. A new couch it is leather and dark brown also. I got have a new queen sized bed. It is amazing and I sleep so perfectly on it. My mom and I went to JC Pennys and found a new comforter and blinds for the house. The comforter is brown and the curtains in my room are a camel color. The curtains in the living room are brown with green and blue circles. They match the green acent wall in the living room well. Then put together a few other random pieces. We go a great deal on a coffee table at TJ Maxx it is one of those leather cube things, it is actually a rectangle and the lid flips over to be a hard surface. My parents brought down a TV stand from the Edmond and some other accessories for the kitchen and the rest of the house. All and all it is a pretty good set up and I could not be more happy with it.

The dog is doing great, since I don’t have houses for neighbors, I have the Barber Kevin, and on the other side is the ASAP and then next to that is the Pink Laundry, there is no need for a fence in the back yard so Trek is trying to get used to going out for  bathroom breaks on a leash.  Sometime I let her out without one at night when I know there are not other people around but during the day I take her on a leash just incase she feels the need to go make new friends. In Edmond when ever she got on the leash it ment we were going somewhere in the car so now when I put her on her leash she runs over to the car and sits by the back door. I hope she gets the hang of it soon. She is learing well she can sit, shake and laydown. She is doing so good but still needs to go to obedience school.

Last Friday when I got home from work I sat down and watched a movie. Then Trek decided she needed to go out about 7 p.m., so I took her out on her leash and as I am shutting the door I realized that I locked the door behind me. Yep you got it locked myself out. Luckily Mark’s parent, Larry and Sarah, have a key to my house, I was saved! I went next door and asked to borrow the phone. Called Mom got Larry and Sarah’s number, only to be informed that they were out of town. No biggie right, well not a huge deal, I mean I can still go get the key and come back home. Well that made for a fun hour or so, I proceeded to walk across town, I make it seem far it was really only like 3 miles round trip. But, I will remind you that it is over 100 degrees in Oklahoma right now, which sucks. Unfortunately, I had just thought I would be talking the dog out so I put on the first pair of shoes I saw…flip flops, brown ones at that. Brown flip flops to go with my black top, yep I’m sure that I looked just stellar once I got home. Black shirt, brown shoes, sweaty and with a dog who barely wanted to move. On the was home she kept lagging behind and I was thinking I am going to die if I have to carry this dog home. Any who, I got my key and got back in my nice cool house and had a big drink of water. Problem solved.

Today (Saturday) my dad came up early and David and I took him out to breakfast. Then I took him on the tour of Seminole, got him a paper so he could see what kind of paper we write at The Producer. He seemed to like my house, liked the town and is really happy I have a job I love. He headed home about 9:30 a.m. He called me about 12 p.m. told me he was home and gave me a review of the paper and which stories he found interesting. It was cool to hear my dad talking about things that I had written. That reminds me one thing that I am looking forward to as I become more and more involved in county sports is that fact that I am writing about real people, in a real paper. I know that sounds dumb of course they are real people its not like I write about fake people. But I’m writing about high school and college kids. When I was in high school if I was in an article in the paper, I usually cut it out, and kept it. And it is cool to think that people are going to be doing that with my stories. 

Well that is a short version of what is going on in my life. I am getting adjusted to Seminole and starting to really like the place. I will try to be more diligent with posts once I got internet at my house. Right now I have not got it set up, but I will soon, hopefully.

New Blog, Job and Dog

Hello World. Actually, I do not want to assume that the whole world will read my blog, because let’s be honest that will not happen. I have been thinking for a while about starting a blog but today I decided to implement it.

I have some exciting news to share, for those of you who do not know I started my dream job on June 1. In May, my step dad Mark, told me about a job opening for a sports reporter at The Seminole Producer. www.seminoleproducer.com The Seminole Producer is the county paper for Seminole County. My new job here is for sports writing and photography. I am so excited. I have 10 county high school to cover and we have one community college. I am glad to be working at a small paper because it allows me to do a little bit of everything. I get to find and write my own stories and take pictures. I lay out the pages and write cutlines for the photos. I am looking forward to meeting all the county sports people. Right now in the summer there is not that much going on but dring the high school sports season I’m sure I will be much busier than I am now.

I am moving to Seminole, Okla. I found a house last week and have started moving in already. I looked at many places and settled on a small two bedroom place three blocks from the office. I have awesome landlords which is hard to come by no matter where you live.

Front of house

This is my new house.The house has a small front yard, a small back yard, and a wooden deck. One perk to the house is that I am not but a block from Magnolia Park which right now consists of a walking trail that goes around a pond in Seminole. This will be great for the new dog I will tell you about later.  The park connects to the municipal park and there are plans in place to build a wellness center out on the far end of the trail. The municipal park consists of baseball fields, a swimming pool, a golf course, basketball courts, tennis courts, and boom town which is a playground.  My only other hope is that they add a dog park!  The color scheme inside the house is tan so it will be easy to work with. One bedroom is this tan color and the other is green.  Not a dark green but not a neon green either, kind of a darker lime color. I love the house and I will try and post more pictures later.

Now that new dog I told you about earlier, her name is Trek. When I tell most people they look at me oddly and repeat it back to me saying “you said her name is track” so when I tell people her name I usually have to say, “her name is Trek, like the verb or ‘to trek’.” Then most people catch on. Trek is an eight month old half shepherd, half lab. She is all black and when you see her you see mostly lab. She has lab ears and lab coloring but she has a shepherd nose and shepherd fur.

Trek playing in the yard

Trek playing outsideThe story of how I got Trek was purely luck and good timing. I had been looking for a dog for about a month. Every night I would sit on the couch and look for a dog. I had originally wanted some type of dog that I could take on runs. I looked at many pure bread dogs from shepherds, labs, boxers, great danes and many other breeds that I had heard made good running partners. Then I had a change of heart and decided I want to get a rescue dog, maybe one from the pound. Well if you know anything about me you know that I can not go to the rescue and pick out a dog because I would come home with ten. While I was browsing the different websites for dogs from the pound I found some different dog rescues for specific breeds. I looked at one lab rescue and fell in love with an adorable chocolate lab named Wrigley. I applied for Wrigley, a 2 year old, female lab but was denied because David has a dog that is not fixed and they will not adopt out rescue dogs to homes that have “unaltered” dogs. This is something I do not understand because rescue dogs are fixed and so it is not like they could have puppies or anything. After this I got a little discouraged and started looking in the paper for dogs I called on a few dogs of different breeds but to no avail, I was still dog less. One night, after I had somewhat given up hope, I was on facebook and saw that one of my friends posted that there was a half shepherd half lab looking for a good home. I immediately messaged him and told him I was interested in the dog. He apparently had posted that for a friend so he sent my message on to her. She responded and told me that her and her husband had been at petsmart one day and there was a man sitting out front with these puppies giving them away. They, much like I would have, picked out a dog an took it home. About seven months later, which was May, they were expecting their first baby and they felt that they needed to spend their time focusing on the new member of thier family that would soon arrive. I came and picked up Trek a few days later and the rest is history.

I have only had her for a little over a month but she is great. She was not crate trained when I got her but David and I both thought that this was important for her to learn especially since David’s dog Mason is crate trained. She is very smart and caught on to the concept very quickly. She loves to play fetch and also she loves to play with Mason. Mason is an old english bulldog. You can read about them here: http://dogbreedinfo.com/oldeenglishbulldogge.htm

Mason posing for a picture about two months ago.

Trek and Mason are quitre the rowdy pair and I am sure they will miss each other when I get all moved in to my house in Seminole. David was awesome when I got Trek and he purchased me a crate and took her to her first vet visit as my birthday present.

In all, May and June were eventful months. I put together an application for this job, interviewed, got Trek, got the job, looked for a rent house that accepted pets, commuted to work daily until I found one, and now I am just trying to get settled into my new life. Hopefully I will be settled by the end of July just in time for high school sports to start.