Mom and Dad roll on in!

Well since I've failed to post for the past 4 weeks, guess there's lots to catch up on! Since my last post I've gone to Atlanta and presented for work, Mom and Dad came and visited, and most recently I went to Anaheim for a Beta Alpha Psi National meeting. So let's start with Atlanta!

I landed around nine pm, and made the questionable decision to ride the Marta. I sat down and was quickly surrounded by older ladies, who I'm assuming figured I could use their maternal comfort. After watching a man clearly on drugs walk about the moving train and trying not to stare at the cross dresser sitting directly in my line of vision, I greatly appreciated their presence. I chatted with the woman next to me, mentioned where I was interning and the woman in front of us turned around and said she works for the same place! Small world! So we walked off the train together and headed off to our hotel. We were escorted by a homeless man, and I learned the lesson to always have a couple dollars in your back pocket so you don't have to be a jerk and not pay them, but you also don't have to pull out your wallet! Overall it was a very successful trip and I got to wear all my new clothes that the lovely ladies at The Loft helped me pick out(or more dressed me up in!). Below are pictures are from the 51st floor looking out at Atlanta.

Next came a visit from Mom and Dad! I will continue to thank them for spending their hard earned PTO to come to Oklahoma, it's probably not their first choice! They drove in Thursday night, and went to the Blue Bell Factory while I was at work Friday morning. Then we went to Tulsa University and ran around. Look what sorority they have!!

Saturday, Mom willingly went to Body Pump with me. She kicked butt!! Stairs were a struggle for the next couple days, but she still did awesome! We cleaned up and headed out the Philbrook Museum. After talking up the gardens for weeks, they were closed due to storm damage. Dad took it in stride and instead found a picture of leaves he really liked. Close enough?
The next day we made the trek out to Muskogee and took a tour, and then went to the Oxley Nature Center. Thank you Oxley Nature Center for securing my support of bug repellent. It was hysterical to watch us walking and doing a swatting dance at the same time. We successfully escaped the mosquitoes, ticks, and spiders only losing one pair of shoes in the process!
They left Monday morning and I returned to my cooking(much less appealing) and greatly missing their wonderful company! Thanks Mom and Dad for making the trip, even with the mighty mighty Prius being damaged!
This weekend I went to Anaheim for the BAP meeting. Nothing like 1500 accounting students in one hotel! We got upgraded to a suite and got tons of free stuff!  So much free stuff... Including a pizza cutter, baseball hat, thumb drives, and sound amplifiers.

It was really fun to hear about everyone's summer and be around people my age!  So now only three more weeks and I have finished an entire summer in Oklahoma! I would not have survived this summer without the nightly phone calls with my parents and their endless support. Don't worry, I can try to repay their support with an extra large shop in Skaneateles, as many clamps as you want Dad! And Mom, an above ground garden for you. We're almost there!

Schucht comes to town!

This weekend began early with the arrival of Emily! She came in Thursday night at the fine hour of midnight! Friday after I went to work, we hung out at the house and watched TLC and HGTV. We made cheesy noodles, chicken, and margaritas. Turns out almond milk works as a substitute in the cheese sauce, a little strange but still good! Saturday we went hiking, which was an interesting experience. I may have  underestimated the heat/humid and overestimated my knowledge of the trail. I've tried to complete this trail 3 times now, only one of which we actually started and finished on the same path! 

We finally finished the path 3 hours later, and after a pits stop at QT felt a lot better! After lunch and showers, we went to the Philbrook Museum. It was BEAUTIFUL!

 

The art was cool, but the garden was stunning! We wandered downtown Tulsa, but it was very warm and very little was open, so we hopped in the car and went to Target! This morning we headed to the zoo!

We made sure to visit the owls, we couldn't resist! The funniest part was seeing the desert exhibit, they had Javalina and people were fascinated by them! I could have been the docent for this exhibit, to the left you'll see a cactus and to the right you'll see another big cactus... oh, there's a cactus wren! Overall, it was a very nice zoo and listening to all the kids comments was hysterical! 

To prove Emily actually came to Oklahoma, we took pictures with hay rolls. I really shouldn't make comments about people's interest in Javalina when I take pictures with hay!

It was an awesome weekend, and I am so thankful Emily made the trip out!

4th Oh July

After two weeks of flying solo, I had visitors! Joe and Melissa drove in Wednesday night to spend the fourth in Broken Arrow! Our weekend started on Thursday with a morning visit to Blue Bell Creamery. After a wonderful tour of the factory, we had a complimentary scoop(they actually give around 3 scoops per bowl!) of delicious ice cream. May I recommend the the Coffee Toffee, it had a great coffee flavor with giant pieces of toffee. From there we grabbed a bite to eat and drove out to the aquarium. Apparently it drove Joe to stick his head in a shark's mouth!

 We went through the shark tube, saw the beavers (Go Beavs!) and headed out the Arkansas river located behind the aquarium.

 As we were leaving Joe stuck his head in another large predators mouth, apparently he'll do anything to get out of Oklahoma!

 We followed that up with a movie and a nail polish session. Once your married, you always have someone to do your right hand! New skill for Joe, I see a future!

In Oklahoma fireworks are legally sold, and EVERYONE sets them off. We sat in the McDonald's parking lot eating milkshakes and had multiple shows simultaneously going on all around us! It was wonderful!

 Friday, we went hiking, sat by the pool and watched Intouchables. It was an awesome movie , I highly recommend it, kudos to Melissa for the pick! Saturday we went to the farmers market, saw Star Trek and made peach blueberry tarts, featured below. The spiral of extra dough and brown sugar was eaten to fast to be featured! Eventually Joe will learn not take things directly from the oven and put them into his mouth, but until then we will watch his "Dis is hot!" face followed by loud hissing/breathing sounds.

Sunday Joe and Melissa visited Woodward Park, and saw the many swans. We then went to Livesay Farm and picked up some peaches. It was a wonderful weekend and the company couldn't have been better!

Top 5

After one full week living in Oklahoma, here are the top 5 things I've learned:

1. It is the land of Paula Deen's, everyone has an accent, everyone! They are extremely nice and very friendly, but I constantly have the urge to mock their accent!

2. There are way more trucks than cars, and some trucks even have these!

Wonder if those horns would fit on my corolla??

3. It's flat... very flat. Here's the view from my drive home from work one day.

Thank goodness for GPS, because I have no idea where I'm going most of the time! With no mountains, if the sun isn't out I have no sense of which way's north, again thank you Mom and Dad for the phone!

4. Everyone wears dry fit clothing, which I initially thought was just trending here until I went on a hike today. Once I found my way back to my car, it was struggle, and getting into the car, also a struggle, I looked like I had just taken a shower! I now understand the dry fit shirts! Cotton does not dry quickly or breath very well!

While the hike did not have much of an elevation change or view, it was a pretty trail with LOTS of grasshoppers.

That's the Arkansas river by the way!

5. The University of Oklahoma v. Oklahoma State rivalry equals or possibly surpasses that of Oregon v. OSU! I asked if the Sooners were Oklahoma State, and was quickly corrected. Just to keep it straight, Sooners are Oklahoma, and Cowboys are OSU. 

People are lovely and I am loving my internship! Thank goodness for a gym membership so I have something to do, plus the endorphins never hurt. Overall, Oklahoma is turning out to be a positive experience or so it seems after the first week!

O-K-L-A-HOMA!

Well, we made it! Finished up Junior year on Friday, proctoring a final at 7:30 am. Flew from Portland to Phoenix, sat in Phoenix for 4 hours, and made it to Tulsa at 12:30. Walked through security and guess who was there?

Horrible picture, but hey it was one in the morning! Drove from there to Broken Arrow and got into the apartment successfully, after a couple of U-turns. It's really nice and has A/C so I'm not complaining!

Here are the basics of the apartment, even has a little balcony! Fully furnished including a spare toothbrush!





We discovered there is a Target, so it's now acceptable to live here. After the grocery store, Mom taught me how to cook kale and made us egg white mozzarella kale sandwiches. Surprisingly tasty and not too bad looking!

Next is Target and unpacking... and maybe some more coffee!