Wayne

We just found out that Cathy's cousin Wayne died this morning.

Wayne was actually a cousin of Cathy's; he and Cathy's dad essentially grew up together. He has always been a favorite of hers. In fact, Mikey's full name is Michael Christopher Wayne Jones. Finding out he is gone is not a surprise, but it is still a shock.

Wayne was a successful businessman, and he was one of the most giving people you could ever meet. He bought the crib that Mikey slept in when he was a baby, and that Hannah sleeps in at my mom's house now. He gave us our second car, the one that I drive to work from time to time (an old car that he had anyway, but his impulse was to give it to someone who needed it instead of having it towed and crushed... and it's run very well ever since). I've never heard anyone in the family say a single negative thing about him. He is greatly loved.

Wayne had some serious health problems. He had a weight problem which he was constantly struggling to get under control, and that led to the usual list of associated health problems, but the thing that finally took his life was cancer. Over a week ago they started talking to hospice people, so it was clear that it was very serious. We did not know that it was going to end this soon.

Wayne knew Jesus. We know that he's not lost to us, and that where he is now there are no weight problems and there is no cancer. We rejoice for that, even though we miss him a lot. Seems like sometimes when we lose someone, things about them come into sharp focus... we realize and understand things about someone that we never understood when they were alive. Sometimes we just never heard the stories. I know that there are some great ones about Wayne, and I hope to get a chance to hear some of them in the coming days.

Love ya, Wayne. I look forward to seeing you again one day!

New words for Hannah!

Ice cream on the outside is just
as yummy as ice cream on the inside!

Tonight after eating some yummy chocolate ice cream with the family, Hannah was sitting at the table playing with a bouncy Tigger she has, and she dropped the toy. Cathy and I were talking in the kitchen, and Hannah surprised us (as she sometimes does) by saying, clear as day once you realized what she had said, "Tiger!" At first we didn't realize what she had said... then we were so excited! (She understands most everything we say, but she seldom speaks yet past "uh-huh" and "uh-uh" and "yeah" and "ap-pool"... you know, the yummy fruity red things. She's a big ap-pool fan... maybe even an ap-poo-holic. But I digress.)

So we gave her Tigger, and she played for a while, and I was doing something else when I heard her going "AAAAAH! AAAAAAAH! AAAAAAH!!!" Tigger had fallen down again, so I told her, "Hannah, if you need help you need to say 'Daddy!' or 'Mama!' instead of 'Aaah!' Let's practice... I'll go around this corner and you say 'Daddy' and I'll come right away!"

No such luck... no "daddy".

Then I decided to punt: "OK, Hannah... say 'Da!' and I'll come!" and as soon as I went around the corner, she said "Da!!" and I came right away! She did it a few more times, and then we tried her out on "Mama" as well (it's every mama's dream, you know, to hear the baby say "mama"). She said "Mama" right away! Twice in a row! And Mama came running!

Toon Art

This evening we went to Hardesty Library, where a cartoonist named Steve Quinn was appearing in their new theater, Connor's Cove. He was there to show the children the basics of drawing cartoon characters. On the way in, each person was handed a ticket for a drawing (no pun intended) at the end of the performance. Mr. Quinn drew Fred Flintstone, Dino, Charlie Brown, Yogi Bear, and several other cartoons for them, and showed them how to draw some of the cartoons, step by step, from basic circles/ovals through finished product. At the end they drew tickets to give away all of the pictures that he had drawn that night, and Mikey won a poster-sized drawing of Scooby Doo drawn in black magic marker!

It was fun that Mikey won the picture of Scooby Doo, because it was actually the second artist-drawn cartoon character that Mikey had received within just a few weeks! Not too long ago we went out to Promenade Mall to see a rock & roll art show (there were vintage photos of rock stars, album art, art done by the stars themselves, etc.) and at the show was a guy named Ron Campbell. Mr. Campbell was there because he worked on the animated Beatles cartoons, including Yellow Submarine (apparently he breathed life into the main Blue Meanie, among other things), and now he spends a lot of his time creating original artwork in that style and featuring the cartoon Beatles, and selling it to fans and collectors. Well, Mikey doesn't know too much about the Beatles, but he certainly knows one of the other projects Mr. Campbell worked on... Rugrats! When we told him Mikey likes Rugrats, he immediately asked Mikey what Rugrats character he would like a picture of. Mikey chose Chuckie, and Mr. Campbell picked up a paintbrush and drew him a beautiful picture of Chuckie, right before our eyes. What a great guy!

Big Round World

Yesterday we went to Oklahoma City to visit my uncle Frank and his son, my cousin Frank Jr. and their wives. We stayed until it was pretty late (OKC is almost 2 hours away) and it was waaaaaay past Hannah's bedtime. She and Mikey had spent most of the weekend at Meme's house (the reasons for that are a whole 'nother story) and they really love her, so Hannah was not only sleepy from it being late, but she was cranky because she was in my car instaed of Meme's car! So we got into the car and she started crying... and by "crying" I mean "screaming her head off." She was inconsolable, and very un-ignorable. Finally we decided to try to see if she would go to sleep with some music. I put on my Ashley Cleveland Men & Angels Say CD, hoping that the hymns would calm her down, but it didn't do the trick. So I finally put back on the CD that she had seemed to enjoy earlier: Big Round World by Trout Fishing In America. As soon as she heard the first part of track #1 (the title track) she quieted right down, and didn't cry another peep until the song ended! Then would you believe it, when the song was over she started screaming again! But then as soon as track 2 came on, silence again. It was hysterical! She didn't cry after every single song, but she never cried as long as a song was playing. Finally she conked all the way out.

TFIA has been nominated for Grammy awards several times (including for Big Round Workd), but they've never won so far. I think the "made the baby stop crying" award is much harder to earn, and if you ask me, MUCH more valuable!

The Other MJ

Last night we spent maybe an hour and a half or two hours listening to Michael Jackson songs on Rhapsody (here's a sample) and watching his videos on YouTube (find 'em here). I don't know how much Mikey enjoyed it, but Hannah was sure getting her boogie on to "ABC" and "Black Or White"!

Here's the song that (incongruously enough) I spent my years at Oral Roberts University singing in the dorm hallways...

Big Ugly Tulsa Rainstorm

I looked out the window of my office about 10am today and saw this:



Definitely NOT a 10am look! For comparison, on a normal day it looks more like this. It was looking more like dusk... except for the ugly black clouds just above the BOk building (you can't really make them out in the picture). They were really moving... kind of boiling, and heading east as fast as they could!



It started raining off in the distance before it got where I was, but when it got into downtown proper, it came in with a vengeance:



It was REALLY coming down in sheets... it was very exciting to watch (from inside!) I even called Cathy to tell her about it! But it didn't last long... pretty soon a beautiful ribbon of sunshine peeked through:



If you want to see these pictures plus a few more, here's a link to the whole batch.

My birthday was great, by the way... I'll tell about that in another post. We haven't told you about Cub World - we went camping with Cub Scout Pack 137 last weekend! I've got lots of pictures with actual people in them lined up to upload... stay tuned!

Secret

Psst... don't tell anyone. I turned 39 today!