Our trip to Oklahoma

Family:
It was great seeing all the family, the first day we got there we went to Dad and Barbara's house, it hasn't changed a bit. Well except that dad almost has the fireplace finished he started building 8 years ago. The last time I was there Barbara told me if it wasn't finished in a year she would divorce him, 8 years later they are still married and the fireplace is still not finished. I guess some things never change. My dad has always been a bit pokey about getting things done. When I asked him about it he said, I either don't have the time or I don't have the money to work on it. Maybe he will get it done by this summer.
Then we went over to my aunt Mone's house and visited for a while. Her house is just the same too, she still had the beads hanging from the bedroom door jams that you have to part to walk through. Her grandson BJ lives with her now. Brandy her other granddaughter was there visiting coincidentally (not because of the funeral) and she has a 1 year old with another on the way. Her little guy is a hefty 30 pounds. He makes Rachael's boys look skinny. Aunt Bugs apparently comes over there daily with her two dogs. If it storms she spends the night. She is still wrinkly as ever and just as skinny. She said she weighs a whopping 85 pounds. I think her 2 little chiwawa's eat all her food because they are the fattest little dogs I've ever seen.
Ryan and Lisa and their kids got in late that night and we went to Denny's for dinner. Then early that morning Ryan and Dad went to Oklahoma City to pick up Grandma Annie and bring her to Muskogee for the funeral. She is pretty much the same, still dishin it out, and telling jokes. I think she is quite a bit shorter though, she is starting to look like great grandma did. She was hard to drag away for the night but we finally convinced her to stay in the hotel and we'd take her back the next day. She was worried to death about her dogs being away from her for so long. She wouldn't tell me exactly how many animals she has, apparently it is top secret. Veli assured her they would be just fine. She liked my eggplant shirt (the farm logo one) so before we left I opened her suitcase to sneak it in there for her to find when she gets home and I saw she had snatched all the cups and toiletry samples from the hotel. Again some things never change.
The funeral was later that day, and we got to see a lot more of the family. Kim brought her 5 kids. But surprisingly she was very normal and the only thing countrified about her was her 5 kids. (sorry mom) She told me everyone always asks her if she knows why she keeps getting kids, she got tired of that question so she started tell people "yes, that's my favorite part!" I love that answer. She says it shuts them up pretty quick.
Charlies wife and daughter flew in from Spain for the funeral. They were very friendly but the language barrier made it difficult to talk much. The daughter Arrianna is definitely Charlies daughter, with her blue eyes and blond hair she looks a lot like him I think. I heard she wants to come to school in America next year to learn English better. I have her email address and I hope to get to know her better. I also think it would be a great opportunity for her to come to America and learn English. I would like to offer to let her live with Todd and I. Todd seems open to the idea, so we will see what happens. He also likes that we have family in Spain. He sees that as a vacation opportunity and wants to go visit them there.
The funeral was sad, he had a large church family that came to the funeral and many of them had tears in their eyes, I truly felt they all knew and loved Charlie. He was hard not to like, even with all of his flaws. Here is a funny story about Charlie that if you knew him will make you smile. Apparently his neighbors were complaining that charlie had a lot of stuff around the yard that made it look sloppy, so one of them kindly asked him if he would clean it up. He very nicely said he would, and that day he made a pile in his front yard of all his junk and set it on fire. He was as ornery as they come. Here is his obituary if you want to read it.
The next day we went to Oklahoma city to take my grandma home and out to lunch with Veli and Robert (my Aunt and cousin) before we left. We let them pick the restaurant and they picked Cici's pizza. They love that place, I can't for the life of me figure out why. Veli also made me some vegetarian egg rolls to take home with me. They are so good. After pizza we took them all home and headed for the airport.

Food:
This is what we ate the entire time we were in OK. Popeye's chicken, Quizno's, Denny's, Golden Corral, Cici's pizza. The best meal we ate the whole time we were there was the free continental breakfast at the hotel. I think if I ate at one more greasy food joint I was going to puke. I pretty much felt nauseated the whole time we were there.
I guess they like cheap food in Oklahoma, and buffets seem to be popular as well.
I told Todd that we hardly spent any money on food while we were there. He said, he would have gladly spent more money on food for a descent meal.

And that was our trip in a nutshell.

Also in case you didn't pick up on it, my family in OK is very country and simple. Aunt Bugs says everyone makes fun of Oklahoma, that were just a bunch of rednecks but she claims OK has more astronauts than any other state. I don't know if that's true or not, be she swears it is. I think what she was getting at was that just because your country doesn't mean your stupid.

I do know that Carrie Underwood (American Idol winner from season 4) is from Checotah, OK (the town my uncle Charlie lived it)

I also got a hold of some of my grandpa Chucks old pictures while I was there from when we were kids, I hope to post them soon. I need to find a scanner first.