This is not a place you want to take the kids, but if you are ever in Tulsa, eat at the Garlic Rose. We went with a group of about 15-20 people last weekend, so there was a lot of food sharing. We ordered several different appetizers, the baked brie was yummers as was the domestic and imported cheese plate which had a lot more to it than just cheese. We had some great wine, too. I had salmon for dinner and it was done just right and Sean really liked his pasta as well. I don’t know if I will ever have a reason to go back to Tulsa, but if I do, I want to eat there again.
Archive for May 2007
I just have to sound off about something that really bothers me. Now before I begin, let me state that my children watch TV. They know there are rules about how much and what they can watch and that includes computer time, too. However, when I see a mom pushing her preschooler in a stroller and he has a portable DVD player with him I have to say something. Come on, now. Is it really necessary to watch TV while you are on a walk? Is it too much to ask to maybe talk to your child while you are on a walk? Or maybe just let them be alone with their thoughts for a while. The same goes for TV in the car. Now I can understand if you are traveling across the country or something, but do the kids really need to watch TV while they are on their way to preschool or the grocery store? I don’t care how educational the TV is, kids need time to just sit and think, stare out the window, or look at books, maybe even color. They don’t need to have a screen in their face everywhere they go. Oh, and that reminds me. Yesterday the boys and I went to go tour a local healthclub to see what they had to offer as far as swim lessons go. They make you go on the complete tour, however, even if you just want some info. Anyways, that was fine. They have an awesome pool-inside and out. We also went into the childcare center where parents can drop off their kids so they can go get fit and trim. Do you know what most of those kids were doing while their parents were exercising? Yep, they were sitting on their bums watching TV. They were all lined up in a row, maybe about twelve of them. There was one kid playing basketball maybe three or four kids playing on the play structure and one little girl coloring. Turn off the TV for a while, folks, just for a little bit.
This is a really well-written book that tells a very difficult story. It is fiction, but as I was reading it I saw so much of a former student of mine in the main character it was scary. The boy in this book has horrendous things happen to him. I had a student once who, sadly, lived through a very similar situation. The emotions, personality and anger this boy exhibited were almost identical to some of the things I witnessed my former student going through. It was scary. I never really knew exactly what happened to my student, but I knew it was bad and that he and his siblings weren’t allowed to live at home anymore. I wish I would have had this book to read then. I think it would have helped me to understand him and what he was going through a little bit more.
We got to feed some stingrays, too.
This toy Liam got at the giftshop is going down in the record books as one of the world’s most ANNOYING toys.
1. LOTS of dead turtles and armadillos on the side of the road.
2. We saw someone get bucked off a horse.
3. A deer processing plant
4. The amazon.com Kansas processing warehouse-it was HUGE. (Now we know where our books are coming from.)
5. A Planned Parenthood with a drive thru…not sure what you do in a Planned Parenthood drive thru.
6. A sign that said something about selling semen…it was for cows.
Congratulations to the two newest doctors in the family! We are all so proud of both of you!
I have complained since we started violin about how UNpunctual Liam’s teacher is. I mean REALLY unpunctual…it’s like she has no sense of time. If your lesson is supposed to start at 1:30, you will be lucky to start by 2:15-that’s on a good day. And she never apologizes or even acknowledges that she is late…EVER!!! That’s not including travel time there and back. So basically, about a quarter of your day gets sucked up by violin lessons. That has been okay and I have managed to tolerate it for the past two+ years because she is so good with Liam. And remember, only Liam plays right now. Colm is going to start soon…can you imagine how much time is going to be wasted just WAITING for our lessons to start???? So, tomorrow I am going to go observe another teacher. I interviewed her over the phone and she sounds good. I couldn’t come up with a polite way to ask her if she is punctual though. I guess we’ll see if she in on schedule when I go to observe the lesson tomorrow. Another reason why we are thinking about switching is because of kindergarten. Liam won’t even get out of kinder until 3:45. Group lessons begin (or atleast they are supposed to begin) at 3:30ish. By the time I wait in the carpool line and drive all the way to his lesson, they will have missed half, if not all of the group lesson. Not to mention that I am going to be in a mad rush to get them from point A to point B every Monday…I don’t want that. Another bonus is she costs about half us much. Money talks, folks.
The GPS I have in my car has traffic alert so it will tell you when you are about to hit a traffic jam so you can presumably find a different route. So, I am stuck in traffic today on the freeway and my GPS says, “There’s traffic ahead”. Hmmm….really…thanks for telling me. I think the trouble is that it won’t tell you there is traffic on the freeway until you are on the freeway and when the traffic jam starts before you even get down the exit ramp, you are kind of stuck.