The Surprise Spider

I searched "spider surprise" on Google Images, and this was one of the pictures that came up (don't ask me why). Hahahahaha... I think we should all read this book now.

Y'know what's even worse than a spider? A surprise spider. Today after my shower, I reached for my head towel, pulled it off the rack, and was just about to wrap it around my wet hair until I realized that there was a brown spider clinging to it.

AAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Towel was instantly dropped to the floor; Jean did a little spastic shake; and then spider was quickly squished in a tissue. (Oh, by the way, even worse than a surprise spider is a surprise-spider-while-you're-naked-and-wet.)

There's just something about spiders that gives me the heebie-jeebies (and I know I'm speaking for Tim here, too). Maybe their long spindly legs? Maybe their eight eyeballs? Maybe their ability to magically and disturbingly appear ANYWHERE at ANY time? This morning's encounter reminded me of one time in Pasadena when I opened my closet door, reached up to pull the lightbulb string, and then saw a spider dangling right in front of me. Why do they do that?? WHY? It's like they're intentionally messing with us.

Anyway, after living in California where all manner of spiders (including black widows) are very common, I've gotten really good at squishing them. (A couple times, I squished spiders in my bare hands. Yeah... I'm hardcore.) But I still can't get over their creepiness. How do you deal with spiders? Have you ever had a "surprise spider" incident?? (Gaahhh!! I have to do another spastic shake, just thinking about it.) :-)

Weston Likes Ice Cream

This is what happens when we suggest going to Braum's:



P.S. Yes, the video starts with Weston sitting in the closet by himself. That's what I get for starting to tape during a game of hide-and-seek.

P.P.S. At the end of the video, you'll notice that Weston is putting on MY shoes for some reason.

This and That

Is it just me, or does life seem REALLY busy right now?

Our ongoing "Operation: Transition Tulsa" seems to be going veeeeery slowly, and I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe because Tim is at the office for 10 hours a day (and 5 hours on Saturdays), which postpones any opportunities to discover Tulsa's fun places as a family? Maybe because I'm still in the friend-making/town-mastering process myself? Maybe because our apartment has central A/C, so I really like to stay home? (Haha!) Maybe because all the work of finding doctors/dentists/babysitters/everything is exhausting me? Maybe because unpacking/decorating is taking forever? Maybe because our impending student loan repayments are causing significant stress? Maybe because I really like just going to Target, the library, the playground, and the pool over and over again with Weston, instead of anywhere else? (Luckily for me, he's all about the simple entertainment.)

I don't know. But I feel like it's taking a lot longer than usual to find our niche here and get busy having fun. And part of the problem is that we haven't been able to try very many restaurants yet. In general, the more fantastic restaurants I discover, the happier I am. So, that's something, I think, that Team Anderson can work on. :-)

Fortunately, we did have some fun family time recently, where we visited Tulsa's River Parks, which is a trail network along the Arkansas River:
I really likey the green here (even if the river is brown):

Weston got to bum a ride (literally) for part of the way:

Eventually he requested his sunglasses so that he could be smooth and chic like Tim:

Along the way, we passed this statue entitled, "Pheasant Eludes Bobcat," or as Weston liked to call it, "Kitty":

Thumbs up for River Parks!! We will be back for a picnic one of these days (hopefully before temperatures reach 115 degrees):

Afterwards, we were thrilled to try a much-hyped Mexican restaurant, El Tequila, mainly because we heard that it was a dirty, authentic greasy spoon. Haha! In fact, it's quite clean and pretty nice, at least compared to the questionable little taquerias that are all over L.A. Anyway, I took pictures to document our experience, but unfortunately, El Tequila did not cut the mustard for these L.A.-expats.

There were chips and salsa (pretty decent):

There were tacos in crunchy, Taco Bell-style shells (boo); burritos with spaghetti sauce on top (at least that's how it tasted - boo); and enchiladas filled with hamburger (boo numero tres):

Tim and I LOVE tamales, so we ordered them on the side, and they were actually pretty tasty (I think the pork was seasoned with cinnamon, among other spices). However, they apparently only make pork tamales, so when we ordered chicken tamales, they just took a pork tamale and topped it with chicken chunks (haha):

In a last-ditch effort, I persuaded Tim to let us get the churros for dessert, because you can never go wrong with churros, right? The answer is right, because they were good. But I think the dessert should have been called CRAZY Churro SUGAR Explosion!!!!!!!! instead of "churros" (alright, that picture doesn't look very crazy, but believe me, it was very big and very crazy before we tucked in):

Weston got to enjoy a lunch of bland French fries and a hot dog in a stale bun, but at least he got to top it off with some Crazy Churro Sugar Explosion:

Yep. I take pictures of everything you do, Weston.

We've also had some fun with friendlies over the past week. We went to a Memorial Day barbecue, where Weston spent 95% of the time standing in the kiddie pool with a little plastic water gun:

Fortunately he allowed enough time to devour a hamburginner (that's Westonese for ya):
I hosted a playdate at our apartment, which was attended by six children. And as you can see, it was a good playdate (that's Mr. Andy there):
And I did some babysitting for new pal Kira, which was more like "play/eat/watch Toy Story 2, repeat over and over again". That's Dawson, Katelyn, and Weston:
They had a good time:
So, there are SOME interesting things happening, and hopefully there will be more to come, once we feel like we're really here and really settled and organized (spatially and mentally). :-)

Penny Drop Is Heeeeere!!!

(Editor's Note: a shameless, gratuitous plug follows.)

Looking for a sweet new game for your i-thingie?? (iPod Touch, iPhone, what have you.) Well, you're in LUCK!

Penny Drop is heeeeeere!!!

Dave Nutter, of Dave and Tiffany Nutter fame, has spent the past several months developing/programming/perfecting this fun game. We want to support him not only because the Nutters are really good friends of ours, but also because Dave asked Tim to work on the artwork, so Tim had the great opportunity to collaborate with him a little bit by developing the graphics for the game.

And now the game is finally out!!! Please consider adding Penny Drop ($1.99) to your game-folio -- after all, who ISN'T curious about dropping a penny off the Empire State Building??

P.S. Dave also developed another game called Cheezu, "the photo maze game," which is also worth checking out!

P.P.S. iPhones are awesome. I'm pretty sure I really want one.

Introducing Our Newest Family Member...

SERENITY!!!

(nicknamed "Razzmatazz")

(Why "Serenity," you may ask? Click HERE. And then put it in your Netflix queue. You won't be disappointed.)

(Why "Razzmatazz," you may ask? It's a Tulsa thing. Thanks for the nickname suggestion, Anne Marie!)

Soooooo... Team Anderson finally joins the ranks of the two-car people. It all started seven years ago, when we got married and decided to be a one-car family with Cloud (our 1999 Ford Escort). Fast forward to two weeks ago, when Cloud's air-conditioning died on our cross-half-country road-trip, just as we were passing Oklahoma City on our way to Tulsa. At least Cloud survived the trip, and at least we had air-conditioning MOST of the way.

However, once we arrived in Tulsa, it seemed to magically get hotter and hotter and HOTTER every day. We went two weeks without air-conditioning in our car, and we spent most of that time dreading going anywhere. (Haha!) When we did go somewhere, we rolled the windows down for a breeze, but most of the time it felt like we were just sitting still at red lights, sweating under the hot, hazy sun.

When we couldn't take it anymore, Tim finally drove Cloud to a mechanic, who invited us to his church and also said that it would cost $1,000 to fix the A/C, plus another $1,500 to make other needed repairs. (And this was after the $950 that we'd already spent on Cloud in Pasadena, making sure that it was fixed up for the long drive.)

That was when our ambiguous thoughts of maybe getting a second car some day became real, clear, and IMMEDIATE. So, on Thursday and Friday of last week, we researched lots and lots of used cars, came up with a list of about eight that we wanted to see, and then narrowed it down to our top two.

On Saturday, we packed up loads of snacks for Weston, and then we drove to a dealership to see Car #1, a Hyundai Accent. We test-drove it, but as it turns out, Hyundai Accents are preeeeetty cramped (with a carseat, anyway). However, Theo the Really Friendly Salesman invited us to his church (not kidding) and then came up with a list of other cars that we should check out. He drove us around the lot (in a golf cart, to Weston's great delight), showed us the other cars (which looked much more expensive than the little Hyundai Accent), and then tried to get us to make a deal as we were telling him that we needed to get Weston home for a nap. I liked Theo, but for some reason he wasn't hearing us when it came to our budget. Fortunately, his saving grace was that he happened to mention that all the cars he showed us were also posted online, so as soon as we got home and got Weston to bed, we double-checked his list of cars, only to see that they were all priced WELL above what we wanted to pay. (He never told us the prices while he was driving us around the lot; he just kept saying that he wanted to get us "the best car for our money." Oy vey.)

So, fast forward three hours, when we headed out to see Car #2. (We had promised Theo several times that we'd be back after Weston's nap, so I feel a little bad that we broke up with him without so much as a phone call. He was, after all, really really friendly.) Car #2, a Toyota Corolla, was at another dealership, so we met up with Mike the Nice But Much More Laid Back Salesman and gave it a test-drive. The Corolla is also a compact car, but it felt much roomier than the Accent. (We figure we'll get our big minivan or SUV once we have three children, let alone two. Right now we're still all about the small family car.) Anyway, we LOVED IT. It drove so smoothly and quietly, and it had a really fast pick-up. Plus, it had working A/C (cue angelic choir), a CD player, power windows and locks, AND an automatic transmission. (Jean is sick of stick.) Oh, and FOUR DOORS!!! No more squatting in the backseat to get Weston into his car seat!!! Oh my joy. Yes, we just loved it.

It was a good day for Mike, because we told him as much, and he didn't have to do a thing. He led us into his cubicle and started the paperwork, while Tim and I sat on chairs and Weston sat on my lap eating Goldfish crackers. And then, as luck would have it...

Weston TOTALLY puked...

ALL down my leg and onto the floor. Plus, because I tried to catch it with my hand, I got vomit in the little tiny crevices of my wedding rings, not to mention all over my clothes because of Weston holding onto me while I raced to the restroom. Oh, and once I got there, I realized there was vomit in my sandals, too.

Gross.

Believe it or not, we were at the dealership for another THREE HOURS. (They were in some administrative transition, and all the sales processes were new for everyone.) After throwing up, Weston instantly felt great and became very energetic:

However, he and I smelled of rancid Goldfish crackers for that entire time, and anywhere we went, it started to stink there, too. (We eventually tried to stay away from everyone, so we just watched Spongebob on the waiting area TV.)

Finally, FINALLY, after three hours, we were finally done and ready to go home. I could not WAIT to get both me and Weston out of our vomity clothes. Unfortunately for me, insult was added to injury that evening when Weston and I were deemed "too stinky and pukey" for the nice, shiny new car. (Ahem... TIM...) So, Weston and I drove home in old Cloud, and Tim got to take Serenity on her quasi-maiden voyage.

Hahaha! But it's alright, I agreed to the arrangement, too. And all's well that end's well. While we were getting Weston ready for bath, I made Tim promise me a big Chinese dinner to make up for the downer drive home (and to help quell our loudly growling tummies). Fortunately, he delivered:

So worth it

Now we are the happy owners of two sweet little cars. Tim gets to drive Cloud to and from work every day (he's a sport), while Serenity, the "family car," gets to stay in my possession during the day. Aren't they adorable together?