Archive for the ‘Family’ Category

Carrie Nation and the Speakeasy have a unique sound.

Erin came to visit Mike and me over the Memorial Day Weekend.  Every Memorial Day Weekend, Medicine Park reverberates with the sound of Red Dirt Music during the “Mayor’s Red Dirt Ball”.  After examining the list of bands performing over the weekend, my bet was that the best music would be heard Sunday evening.  Two groups were were scheduled to perform, Carrie Nation and the Speakeasy, 7:00–9:00 PM, and Brandon Jenkins, 9:30–11:30 PM.

We pulled into the old Medicine Park High School baseball field about 7:20 PM, and had no difficulty finding a parking spot.  From there, we only needed to walk the 300 yards, or so, down a blacktopped street and across the old bridge spanning Medicine Creek to be at Medicine Park’s “Main Stage”.  As we walked, we listened to the sound of music carried on the refreshing evening breeze. Read the rest of this entry »

Evans Family Thanksgiving Greeting

It’s been over two months since my last post.  During my time away, I had a total knee replacement of my right knee; my focus has been on recovery and not on much of anything else.  Well, I’m doing very well and am able to return to the things I really enjoy.  I’m not going to bore you with details from the surgery and rehabilitation.  I’m picking up where I left off, as if the past two months were an empty ( ).

The photograph above is not our traditional Thanksgiving photo.  In past years, the photo was taken with everyone standing behind a fully set table complete with the Thanksgiving feast spread upon it’s ample surface.  Because this year’s meal was so much later than in the past, stomach’s were growling, and the food so enticing, everyone wanted to eat and take pictures later.

You know how you spend so much time preparing this once-a-year meal and then, how in 20–30 minutes everyone has eaten and are clearing off the table?  This sort of makes it seem not worth the effort.  I think that’s why many people are opting to do something else for Thanksgiving and that’s very unfortunate.  To combat this trend, in our house anyway, I thought it would be nice to serve the meal in courses.  This way much more time could be spent on conversation and fellowship and enjoying the food.  I suggested this to Sherry and was pleasantly surprised when she agreed to give it a try.  The result was that the meal took 65–70 minutes to finish, there was much more talk and laughter, and just perhaps, each ate a little less than in the past.

Here is how the meal was served with course numbers and the name of the preparer.

1. JFK’s Favorite Soup w/ breadsticks:  Herbie
2. Wonderful Mixed Salad:  Marcy
3. The Meal:
   1. Golden Roast Turkey w/Stuffing:  Herbie
   2. Green Bean Casserole:  Sherry
   3. Creamy Mashed Potatoes:  Erin
   4. Delicious Cranberry Salad:  Sherry
4. Dessert:
   1. Pumpkin Delight Pie:  Linda
   2. Chocolate Pecan Pie:  Linda

The meal was wonderful, but then you know, there’s always the cleanup!

Brandon and Leah Dance to their song — "Soul Sister"

Brandon and Leah now live in L.A.  They recently moved along with Leah’s daughter, Neveah.  Brandon is a neurosurgeon at UCLA’s Ronald Reagan Medical Center.  Leah has a Master Degree in Nursing and Neveah is using her PhD in Childhood to her best advantage.  They are roughing it right now while awaiting the arrival of all their furniture from Little Rock.

Brandon, Leah, & Neveah on their way to California

Sherry, Erin, Mike, and I drove to OKC to meet Brandon, Leah, and Neveah as they passed through on their way to California.  I’ll add more to the story later.  Right now it’s time for me to leave for work.

On Solid Rock

It isn’t usual to have rain on the Fourth of July in Southwest Oklahoma but the past two have been soggy.  This year we received an abundance of rain as a result of hurricane Alex in the Gulf of Mexico.  Erin brought a friend, Christin, home with her over the Fourth.  Erin loves fireworks and hiking in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge.  This time she wanted to trek to the “Forty Foot Hole” to see how much water was rushing through the area via West Cache Creek.  Normally, there would be very little rain, but since we’ve had so much in the past few days, we were all eager to visit the rapids.

I left before home before Sherry, Erin, and Christin this morning because I wanted to be prepared for taking pictures as they came down the trail.  It began raining heavily on the trip from Lawton to the Refuge and rained throughout my hike to the “Forty Foot Hole”.  I was dressed for it with my Redwing boots, Tilley hat, and poncho.  My camera gear was protected in a Lowepro 300 AW camera bag.  By the time I reached the area the rain had stopped so I unpacked my Sony A700 and 70-200 mm f/2.8, and waited for ladies to arrive.  I know the above picture is a little soft on the focus, but I wanted to use it anyway.  In order to get the rushing water to look this way, it was necessary to shoot at 1/4 sec., f22, and ISO 200.  I’m hand holding the camera and zoomed all the way to 200mm.  Taking this into consideration, I’m pretty satisfied with the result.  Being able to do this, at all, is a tribute to Sony’s anti-shake (image stabilization) being built into the body of their cameras.  It really makes hand holding workable in a pinch at some ridiculously slow shutter speeds.

Foo Foo under a Mushroom!

Little Bunny Foo Foo came to live at our house?  Sherry was helping a good friend move this weekend.  Their bunny rabbit was unable to make the move with them.  So, we now have an additional member of our household.  Foo Foo didn’t come empty handed or without his own assets.  He came with a wonderfully large cage complete with water bottle, food tray, and potty box.  We have a pretty large backyard securely fenced with a six feet tall cedar fence atop a six inch high concrete curb.  There are no gaps anywhere so Foo Foo is securely contained and anything larger than a snake is kept out.  I took these photos yesterday in our backyard.

Foo Foo is his official name, but I like it!  “Little Bunny Foo Foo” was one of the children’s stories Sherry told our children when they were small.  It’s was one of their favorites and one they bring up, even now, whenever reminiscing.  I think they will like the name, too!  I don’t know what kind of rabbit this is.  My brother, Dickie, raised rabbits when I was a little kid, and I had a rabbit or two as a youth, myself, but I never learned much about the different breeds.  If anyone knows what this rabbit is, please let me know.

"Hey Soul Sister"

My oldest son, Brandon, married a wonderful young lady, Leah, this weekend in Little Rock, Arkansas.  We just arrived home in Lawton, tired but happy, a couple of hours ago.  I wanted to get something up here quickly so here is a picture of Brandon and Leah during their first dance at the reception.  Earlier, Brandon shared with us that “Hey Soul Sister”, became “their song” as soon as it was released.  Here, they dance to their song as loving friends and family help them celebrate.  I’m pretty sure Brandon is singing the lyrics to Leah as they dance.  If not, you can only guess as to what he might be saying.

Please click the photo, or here, to view the photos I took at their reception.  There are 83 pictures on 5 pages so be sure and don’t miss any.  Please feel free to leave comments if you like, or dislike them.

Herbie