WINDING DOWN THE SUMMER

Wes and Kasey with Papaw at Boston Avenue United Methodist Church in Tulsa

Wesley and his Meme




All smiles after getting his Oklahoma Drivers Permit! Now he has to wait until we come home next summer to get the actual license!

Kasey with Ben and Jake, ready to make tie-dye t-shirts!

Wes with his cousins Ben and Jake

At the Broadway at Boston Avenue musical with Meme and Papaw

We spent the last week of our trip in Tulsa with Shelby's parents, then on to Houston for a few days with my sister Mary Ann and her family. Most of the week in Tulsa was spent in driving school for the kids. They had ten hours of classroom instruction on Monday and Tuesday, then drove with the instructor on Wed, Thurs, and Friday. I was required to ride along on one of their drives, and I loved their driving instructor-he was a 62 year old man retired from teaching in Tulsa Public Schools-and he taught them not only safe driving, but other life lessons as well. Wesley passed the written test and got his Oklahoma drivers permit, but Kasey can't take the test until we come back next summer since she just turned fifteen. Too bad neither of them will be able to drive for another year!

We spent some time with my sister Susan and my nephews Ben and Jake this week when the kids weren't too busy driving around Tulsa. Also saw a musical at Boston Avenue Methodist Church with Shelby's parents. Handy was hospitalized for several days and we made our nightly visit to the hospital with milkshakes. :)

Houston was good for our transition back to Singapore-hot and humid! Wes and Kasey got to hang out with their cousins Hadley and Harrison, and we really just enjoyed being together and not feeling rushed. Mary Ann made sure we had our last meal of authentic Mexican food and one last Sonic run. Thanks, sis!

We truly dreaded loading up one last time to head to the airport. Our bags were over the limit on nearly every segment of every flight we took, totally over $1100 in excess luggage fees for the summer. Not to mention, packing and unpacking a total of 8 times was the worst part! Poor Wesley usually ended up loading up all the luggage, since I hurt my back at the beginning of the summer (from what? Heavy luggage of course!) We're definitely going to have to re-think all this luggage next year.......

MY PARENTS 50TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY IN TULSA

Big Ben with little Ben

The Tucker family at Grandma and Grandad's 50th anniversary (not pictured are Teresa's kids, Alex and Kris)







Don't they look great?

The four daughters - Teresa, Tracy, Mary Ann and Susan

Mom and Dad's friend Calvin Mann sent these tropical flowers special delivery overnight from Hawaii!!!

Mom and Dad in the back of the limo

My sister Mary Ann, her husband Kent, and Ben Yee

Standing in front of the Tulsa Driller at the Tulsa fairgrounds

Mom and Dad before the limo ride

The limo was a really fun surprise and great way to travel around Tulsa!

Emails had been flying for months now between my three sisters and myself, planning for our parents 50th wedding anniversary celebration in Tulsa. We surprised them with a "Trip Down Memory Lane", starting with BBQ at the Knotty Pine on Friday night. In addition to our family, my parents' dear friend Ben Yee came all the way from Honolulu to help us celebrate. Boy, were they surprised! :)

On Saturday we all loaded up in a Hummer limo and took a tour of all our old stomping grounds where we grew up - our school, the church parking lot where we all learned to drive, the house we lived in for over 25 years, downtown Tulsa. We played "The Newlywed Game" and of course Mom and Dad proved just how well they know each other! We had a wonderful dinner at my sister Susan and Brent's house, watched Mom and Dad dance, had a photographer come take some family photos, and watched a DVD that we had put together just for the occasion. It was a lot of fun for everyone to be together to celebrate Mom and Dad's fifty years of love!

RELAXED AND LAID-BACK IN ARKANSAS

Picking peaches at the orchard

Wes and Kasey with J.D. Humphrey

On the steps of First Christian Church with Grandma and Grandad

We stopped at the Arkansas rest area and signed the guest book. You should have seen the look on the people's faces when we told them we came all the way from Singapore to visit grandparents in Russellville, Arkansas!

Spending some time in Arkansas with my parents was something I was really looking forward to, pretty much because there's not a lot to do except sit on the deck, watching the stars and listening to the tree frogs. After an insanely busy few weeks in Texas, I was ready to do just that! We enjoyed the drive from Dallas to Russellville and getting out on the open road again. Cows, ponds, haybales-again, not that exciting when you're used to seeing it everyday, but when you're stuck in an urban jungle of sorts you start to fantasize about wide open places. Shelby and I already talk about our need to have at least an acre of land when we move back.....

While in Russellville, we picked peaches, went swimming at the country club, watched old movies, Dad took the kids bowling, Mom cooked herself to death making all our favorite meals, we ate catfish at the Catfish Inn, visited with neighbors and relatives, Dad and I got one of the best massages I've had in a long time, the kids lit firecrackers, and Dad took us on a tour of the cemetery. Yep, small town life is very exciting!

One thing I'm certain that the kids will remember about this visit was that I taught them to drive. One at a time, let me just say-Wesley would criticize Kasey's driving and Kasey would criticize his, so we found it worked better to go one at a time. So each morning I made two round-trips around Main Street and Lake Dardanelle, and each evening we did it again. Wesley had some previous experience behind the wheel from a year ago in Flower Mound when we would occasionally let him drive Shelby's pickup truck. But Kasey hadn't so much as sat behind the wheel, so it was a challenge! I felt comfortable driving with Wesley because he was confident and a pretty good driver, very relaxed. Kasey on the other hand made me extremely nervous, probably because she was trying so hard to do everything just right, as is her mode of doing most things. One day we found ourselves on a pretty steep dropoff, winding our way down the mountain and I thought I was going to have an anxiety attack with her driving-finally had to ask her to pull over so I could drive us home! But practice we did, so that they would be ready to take Drivers Ed the following week when we returned to Tulsa.

SHOP TIL YOU DROP THEN CRAWL

We were on a mission to do a years' worth of shopping while home for the summer. Clothes do not fit us in Singapore, nor do we like the syle of clothing available over there. So we came armed with a long list of things from socks and shoes to bathing suits and t-shirts, baseball cleats, volleyball knee pads, golf gloves, hats, and more. The funny thing is, I noticed many of the clothing items that I tried on were made in southeast Asia! Indonesia, China, Sri Lanka-go figure! I have to come to the US to find it! And of course, no trip would be complete without the purchase of an OSU shirt and an Eskimo Joe's t-shirt! Shelby kept joking that I was good for the Dallas economy. While he was still back home in Singapore he would track my every move online by looking at the credit card and banking accounts. Finally I had to gently suggest that unless he wanted to have a heart attack, he should just not even try to keep up with me! haha. We were all pretty happy to purchase some new clothes, since we wear the same season clothes year-round in Singapore we get tired of wearing the same thing all the time. The thing that most people kept asking me was "What are you buying in the states to take back to Singapore"? Well let me just tell you, I keep a running list when I think of something we can't find there, such as Williams Chili Seasoning or Jane's Mixed Up Salt, or crystal lite drink packets, Reese's peanut butter cups, pecans, and of course, GUM! The kids stocked up on gum to bring back to Singapore since we can't buy it there. But it's not illegal to CHEW it there, you just can't BUY it there! They are allowed to chew it at school! In public it's frowned upon, however, so we don't go around smacking our gum or blowing bubbles. My heavy items were Bath and Body products, Yankee candles, hair and make-up products for Kasey and I, enough feminine products to last both of us for a year, vitamins,(they are crazy expensive in Singapore). One of my favorite purchases that I brought back with me was new kitchen towels. How silly, I know, but I do love having new colorful kitchen towels! The stupidest thing I insisted on bringing back with me, according to Shelby, was my collection of Sonic cups/lids/straws. It was a pain to pack, that's for sure, but I love putting my beverages in the styrofoam cups and carrying them when I go out because then the ice doesn't melt as fast and the drinks stay cold! PLUS I get a thrill from drinking out of a familiar Sonic cup, makes me feel like I'm back home again! (we lost track of how many times we went to Sonic this summer; too many to count!) If someone were to open up a Sonic over in Singapore they would make a fortune. Any takers?

WHERE'S THE BEEF?

Celebrating "Christmas in July" and summer birthdays with the Waychoff family at Anamia's mexican restaurant in Coppell

Saltgrass Steakhouse got a big thumbs up from all of us! Texas beef never tasted so good!

Knotty Pine BBQ was the Tucker family favorite

One of our favorite things to do this summer was eat at our favorite restaurants-everything from Mexican Food to ribs to Blue Bell ice cream to steaks. Everything from Taco Bell to Taco Bueno and beyond. If you haven't tried a cheesecake chimichanga from Taco Bueno, you don't know what you're missing! Fortunately there was a Bueno with a late-night drive-thru window by our hotel. It's a good thing we didn't weigh when we arrived in the U.S. and again when we left, because there was definitely some "excess baggage" to be dealt with! A couple of times we burnt ourselves out on mexican food, but it only lasted a day or two and we were back enjoying it again. And U.S. beef never tasted so good! Saltgrass Steakhouse was definitely a favorite, not to mention "crab-crackin' Monday" at Red Lobster. And this may be hard for you to stomach, but our family total for coneys consumed at Coney Island in Tulsa this summer was 62! (and that was in a period of about 17 days-if Shelby had stuck around a little longer before heading back to Singapore, I'm sure we would have hit 70 or more!) The chili-cheese coneys are small, but it's all about the steamed buns...... I also renewed my love for Arby's roast beef sandwiches and jamocha shakes - yum! And here's another thing we had always taken for granted in the U.S., ice in our drinks! In Singapore they are very frugal with their ice and it was a big deal to come back and not only get ice in our drinks, but REFILLS too! Oh my gosh! Free refills on drinks! Now that's a concept that Singapore does not embrace.

SUMMERTIME IN TEXAS

We had a great time at the Texas Rangers baseball game!

The Deckers filled our car with balloons and what else but chips and salsa! What a wonderful welcome!

It was pretty easy to pick out our car in the hotel parking lot after the Deckers painted the windows for us....HOWDY YA'LL!!!

Kasey's friends Courtney and Emily surprised her at the DFW Int'l Airport

Wow, where do I start? This summer was one that we shall never forget. The anticipation leading up to our trip home was almost as good as the trip itself! Seeing familiar faces, eating familiar foods, driving my own car around - it was all good! It was amazing how our perspective on some things had changed; for example, the weather. In Texas everyone was complaining about how hot is was (near 100 degrees!) but it felt pretty darn good to us because there wasn't the heavy humidity that we have every day in Singapore! We loved the Texas weather! Another thing we noticed was how friendly everyone was, and I don't just mean people we know. People say excuse me and make eye contact in the states, which is something we had taken for granted. Good manners are hard to find in Singapore! And I have to admit, when we lived in Texas we used to gripe and moan about how small our yard was, and how close the homes were to one another. When we drove down our old street and past our old house (which still had our bunny statue in the garden), we each commented on how much SPACE there was and how wide the streets were and how spacious it all felt. Yep, we've been in Singapore with over 5 million people on a tiny island, where high rise condos are the norm. Living in Flower Mound, we didn't really appreciate a lot of the little things that now we would love to experience! I absolutely LOVED driving in my car on the right side of the road. Just like riding a bike, it all came back to me! (well okay the first night behind the wheel was a little scary, right Trevor?) We also loved seeing all the US flags flying everywhere. It was good to celebrate 4th of July back in the states for sure! It's been like a party with no end! The kids went to 6-Flags, Hurricane Harbor, and to camp with their friends. Wesley went to camp first, while Kasey and I had a week together, then Kasey left for camp the day after Wesley got home and Wes and I had a week together. Luckily for us, the Rangers were in town before we left Dallas and we got to go to a game. :)

I liked listening to my old favorite radio stations and driving with the windows down, going through drive-thrus! I hadn't been to a drive-thru restaurant or bank or anything in over a year and blew right through the pick-up window, I was so out of practice! ha! And pumping gas! Can't say that I loved it, but then again, that was something I haven't done in a years time. In Singapore it's all full-service stations, not to mention I hardly ever get to drive. Back in April, we put my brother-in-law Brent on a mission to find us an SUV - and boy, did he do good! You know the saying "It takes a village"? Well it took a village for us to get this car. First of all, Brent scouted out the perfect car and made the purchase for us, kept it at his house in Jenks Oklahoma, drove it to my in-laws house where they kept it for a couple of weeks and my father-in-law helped us with getting car insurance and also getting the keyless entry fixed, then my nephew Hunter picked up the car in Tulsa and drove it to Stillwater, where our friends from church, the Cospers, happened to be enrolling their daughter Kelsey (GO POKES!), who drove the car back to Flower Mound for us and took it to our neighbor Amy's house across the street from where we used to live, she let us park it there for over a week then took it to another friend Sue's house, and it was Sue and her family who painted the windows, filled it with balloons and chips/salsa and drove it to the Springhill Suites parking lot so that it would be there when we arrived. AMAZING! The logistics of that was mind-boggling, but how blessed are we to have family and friends who would go to such trouble for us!!!!!!

The welcome we received this summer was wonderful, words just can't describe. Our family and friends were so good to us, bringing us baskets of goodies and gift cards to our favorite places, hosting barbecues and sunday school get-togethers and bunco get-togethers, having a family "Christmas in July" gathering, not minding if all we wanted to eat was mexican food, my mother-in-law Marlene making my favorite cranberry relish just for me, since we missed being together at Thanksgiving. She even froze the cranberries last November, planning ahead! Homemade jam from my mom which Wesley absolutely loves, and the freezer at the Waychoff's house stocked with every flavor BlueBell ice cream you can think of, just for us. We enjoyed our nightly bowl of ice cream with Handy and Marlene, just like old times. Too bad Sugar wasn't there to lick all those bowls!

Speaking of Blue Bell ice cream, I had one of my "moments" in the Tom Thumb grocery store one day when Shelby and I ran in to get some things. I stood and stared at all the different flavors of BlueBell ice cream and it was very overwhelming to me. I'd gone a year without so many of our favorite things, and here they all were, and more. In a clean store that smells good and not "fishy" like our wet markets, I might add. There were so many choices! So many types of cereal! We are used to having our ONE row of American products at our local market(kind of like the Asian food row at your Walmart), so to see it all was just too much and the tears wouldn't stop coming. How many varieties of Triscuits does one really need????? :)

COMING HOME FOR THE SUMMER!

This week finds us very busy packing for our trip home to the states. Everyone is excited except Sugar, who started acting weird once she saw the suitcases come out of the closet! Little did she know that the kids and I would be gone for nine weeks! My neighbor's helper, Olivia, helped us out by looking after Sugar this summer when we were gone or Shelby was traveling. We think maybe Sugar learned some of the Philippino language this summer! :)