Sweet Home Oklahoma

Finally made it home Thursday afternoon. Sorry for the delayed entry, I've been busy, lots to do, lots of people to see. In the short time that I have been back, I have managed to check off a lot of things from my "Things to do in Tahlequah" list. It's so nice to be home though. I've missed everyone here. Not too much has changed except for my house. My mother gets bored and remodels. Every time I come home there is something different about my house. Shirley's latest project has been our backyard. It looks fantastic, she's made it a space that we can actually use. She has her outdoor kitchen that she has always wanted and a nice seating area. She's also putting in a hot tub.

Today Madison had a going away party/TOMS Style Your Sole party. The Mindiola's are finally heading back home up north in Wisconsin for good. They leave Friday. I've been trying to hang out with them as much as possible before they go. It's weird that the only time I will be able to see them in the future will be if I go up to Wisconsin. I will actually be up in Milwaukee later in June for a Concert Management Institute at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. There I will be attending workshops on how to manage a big concert like the one that we have at Wahoo for UIB. I will also get a behind the scenes tour of Summerfest and I get to see Tom Petty perform. The best part about the trip is that it is all expenses paid, courtesy UIB. Another plus is that I get to see Madison! Woah I got off track. So back to the party. Today I decorated a pair of white TOMS. This was a big decision, I just stared at the shoes for a long time. I didn't want to mess them up. I finally just had to dive in and decorate them. I started off with painting a heart and star, then it turned into me writing my name all over one section, then all sorts of greetings and good-byes. It's hard to explain, I'll post a picture of them later. We also tie dyed t-shirts. I am so glad that tie-dye still hasn't gone out of style. It's so fun! After that I headed over to Richard's for my mom's 50th birthday. You heard me right, Shirls is 50. I do have to hand it to her, she ages gracefully, I hope I inherited that gene. This party was the best way to see all of our close family and restaurant friends all at once. Grand China parties always end up being such a melting pot of cultures. Mainly because of Saadia's family being Moroccan and us being Chinese, but it's still a good time. The multiculturalism varies throughout the years, sometimes we have more ethnic employees than other times.

That is pretty much all for now. I hope all of you are enjoying the summer and handling the heat...it's only gonna get worse, Phew, I can't handle the heat well at all, I've been up north too long.