My Mom was a very creative person. When we were small, she made us groceries out of plaster of paris so we could play store. The produce looked SO real we wanted to eat it.

I’ll never forget my 6th birthday that had a Mary Poppins theme. She created Mary Poppins out of a hanger, sewed her outfit, including her carpet bag and this graced the center of my party table. We played the usual party games but I remember the prizes going along with the theme. I remember very specifically a yellow pin that looked like a parasol.  How I wanted to win those prizes!

When I was in fifth or sixth grade, Mom joined Weight Watchers. This was way back in the dark ages and, once her weight was lost, she became a lecturer for them.  She would draw her own posters every week to illustrate the point of her lecture and I think this was the first time I realized that Mom could really draw.

She drew a self portrait in the 80’s that my brother and sister and I saw here and there. We all agreed we needed to throw that away when we came across it while packing up her apartment last November.  She looked angry in the self portrait and I don’t think any of us wanted to remember Mom like that.

Mom was fun and she was unique. We always knew when she was angry though because her left eyebrow would raise, seemingly on its own.

I brought quite a few boxes of mom’s stuff home with me after we went through her storage units in May. I haven’t really had time to do much with them but I keep being surprised by the things I find when I take some time to look.

I was speaking with someone this a.m. who suggested I read The Traveler’s Gift. I told her that I have this book, it was in Mom’s things, and I pulled the book out of the box it was in while I was talking to her.

I just opened up the book and look what I found?

A little hand drawn, cut out, lady with a dog. I know Mom drew this. It’s like she’s still making me paper dolls. 🙂

It has come to my attention, that I may be obsessed with cardboard. That fact hit me last night as we were opening the new Mr. Coffee maker that we had to buy when I took the old coffee carafe out of the dishwasher and it was broken.

David was helping me to get the new coffee maker out of it’s packaging. If you’ve ever done that before, you know that with the styrofoam, etc. it’s kind of a two person job. Especially if you don’t want to break the new carafe.

As I was unwrapping the machine, I was handing the packaging pieces to David. After I thought it was all unwrapped, he said, “Aren’t you going to take that cardboard off?” pointing to the burner. Lo and behold, there was the most beautifully round piece of cardboard I have ever seen!

He tried to take it away from me to put it with the rest of the discarded packaging and I snatched it back from him. “No! I want to keep that.”

I stood there admiring my beautiful cardboard circle. Honestly, I have no use for it but I do love it.

This morning, I looked across the room and saw this:

What is that? Boxes. More cardboard. I just can’t bring myself to throw them away. I might “need” them.

I also have quite a collection of these:

These come to  me when my pageant contestants send their headshots.

I suppose I should really just throw all of these cardboard fancies away but it makes me feel kind of good when I can recycle one of the boxes or the one time I actually used one of the flat cardboard pieces to protect a mailing.

You’ve seen, I’m green, I’m the Cardboard Queen. 🙂

I’ve written before about the fabulous info we learn at the Bartlesville Marketing and Communications Association meetings and I have another story for you today.

Last Thursday’s meeting was about the impact of QR codes on your business. QR code? What in the heck is that? The pageant isn’t like a normal business so I was convinced I would learn nothing of any use to me. I didn’t really even want to go to the meeting, I was that sure it wouldn’t be worth it. But I decided that had to go to the meeting because I am the secretary of the association and I didn’t really have a good excuse not to go.

I am not a secretary kind of gal. I take horrible notes. I get too caught up in what’s going on, or too distracted by other things if I’m bored.  Attention span of a gnat. But being the BMCA secretary is awesome because I get to live tweet the event. That keeps me interested, focused and occupied. 🙂

Once Scott got started, I was enthralled. How had I never heard of a QR code before? They are big in Japan and you can find them on buildings and billboards and CDs. They are everywhere.

What is it? It’s a code, kind of like a UPC code, that when scanned, will take you directly to a website, dial a phone number or send a text. How cool is that?!

I felt a little Veruca Salt-ish. “I want it and I want it NOW!”

I couldn’t wait for the meeting to be over so I could get to work on my first QR code. This thing that I thought would have no use in my business, I suddenly knew had endless possibilities.

Here’s my new non-pageant business card. The QR code in the lower right corner, when scanned, takes you directly to the Rott-I-Tude facebook page. Awesome!

Expect to start seeing these in my life. I will for sure be putting one in the pageant program book and am thinking of putting one this year’s t-shirt for the contestants. And now, you will know what it is when you see it!

Scott referred to me as a social media queen but, honestly, I think I’m just a geek. 🙂

Click the link here to see David Austin’s interview with Scott Townsend about QR codes.

Today is my aunt Bonnie’s 75th birthday! Bonnie is my mom’s older sister. There were just the two of them and Bonnie was a big part of our lives growing up because she and Mom were close and we usually lived pretty close to them.

She is the polar opposite of my mom. Mom was always a dreamer, a little flighty – kinda like me. Bonnie represents a calm steadiness to me. When I was in bootcamp, our drill instructor asked us if we had to be in a foxhole with any woman who would we choose? I chose Bonnie.

Which bothered my mom. But I knew that if I were in a foxhole with my mom we’d probably end up getting our heads blown off and my best chances lay with her sister.

When I was young, Bonnie was a teacher. When I was in 5th grade, my regular teacher had to have surgery and Bonnie was put into our room as a long term substitute. One of my other uncles and aunt lived in Hawaii at the time and we happened to be studying Hawaii in school. When she called me out with this fact in front of my classmates, painfully shy little me wanted to just crawl under the table and die. I cried. I think that’s the only bad memory I have of Bonnie. 🙂

Last October, when I went out to be with Mom, I feel like I bonded even further with Bonnie. During the whole of Mom’s illness, death and aftermath, Bonnie did the heavy lifting. Oh we moved the furniture, but she handled the housing, insurance, funeral, etc. The heavy stuff. The hard stuff. She was there when I called, when I needed a shoulder.

I want to take today to tell you just how special Bonnie is to me and how blessed my sisters, brother and I are to have her in our lives.

I love you, Bonnie. May your day be as special as you!

The Hotel Phillips is a beautiful hotel located on Johnstone Ave in Downtown Bartlesville. The hotel was renovated not too long ago but when the new Hilton Garden Inn opened, it was understood that the Hotel Phillips would close. Later, I read an article that said that the hotel would be converted into senior apartments.

I didn’t realize just when the hotel would be closing until the week of the OK Mozart Festival when I walked by and the parking lot was empty. Completely empty. I took this photo on June 15, 2010. The hotel was always packed during OK Mozart due to it’s proximity to theBartlesville Community Center and it was just the nicest hotel that Bartlesville had. In my opinion.

Fast forward two months to August 11 when Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner were seen in the Bass Pro Shop in Broken Arrow and the Walmart in Bartlesville. My neighbor messaged me saying that Jennifer Garner was in Wal-Mart.

I’m glad she told me who was in the photo because I’m not a movie person and I never would have thought anything if I saw her there.

Then came the denial. No, there is not a movie being filmed in Bartlesville. But! I had received an email from the CVB asking for houses that could possibly be used in a movie being filmed in Bartlesville.

Having just gotten back from two weeks in Chicago, with stuff stacked all around the Garage Mahal waiting to be put away, I knew my unusual house did not fit their specifications and deleted the email. Also, it would take a WHOLE lot to dislodge me from my house.  I love being home so much that I cannot imagine an offer I would take. Have I mentioned I’m not a movie person?

Then came the announcement of a casting call for a movie being filmed in Bartlesville. No! Really??? This one was going to take place in Tulsa. At about that time, I started seeing five or six cars in the parking lot of the Hotel Phillips.

When the next casting call occurred in Bartlesville, add a 40 ft Budget rental truck to the mix at the parking lot. I’m sure they needed “stuff” to conduct a casting call and now that it’s over, the truck is gone.

However….

There are lots of cars in the parking lot now.

And lots of people (and dogs) coming out of the hotel. The lights are on at night in the beautiful Frank Phillips Suite on the top floor of the hotel.

So, this is my question. If you were going to film a movie in Bartlesville, would you take rooms at a local hotel, the nicest of which is the Hampton Inn where you can run into local people every minute you are out of your room, or would you rent out the beautifully appointed, recently closed Hotel Phillips that you could have all to yourself?

I’m sure we’ll hear denial like we did when it was rumored that Britney Spears was staying in the Mayo before it opened but it’s my reasoned opinion that the film crew for the Ben Affleck movie is headquartering in the Hotel Phillips.

Dear film crew folks,

Please make sure your Huskie is on a leash when you have it outside. Boo Boo the Wonderdog is 96 lbs of lean power and he is very hard to hold back.

Thank you,

Lauri

We went down to Louie’s in Jenks for dinner last night. It’s becoming somewhat of a Sunday habit with us. The weekends when Geoff is up visiting Nikki, we usually get together there.

Last night was no different. We got there around five and took a table outside. It was super windy but so very nice.

While we sat there, we started talking about Ryan a.k.a. The Dudelette. It seemed that since it was a family dinner, we should include him. So I texted him. Then I sat the phone on the arm of Vanessa’s chair so it would be like Ryan and Scarlette were sitting at the table with us.

Ryan wanted me to take a photo of everyone. Scarlette has only met me and I’m not sure if she’s seen photos of everyone else.

So first I took Brandon and Vanessa’s photo. Oh so cute! 🙂

Then I took Geoff and Nikki’s photo. I guess I should have gotten closer since the photo is tiny and I can’t make Nikki’s eyes stop glowing. I’m sorry, Nikki!

Then Nikki took our photo.

Way to go, Scarlette! David NEVER sits still for his photo to be taken. I have more photos of the side of his head than his face. I guess you have clout! 🙂

Then I told the Dudelette that they needed to send a photo to us.

He said,  “We’re working on it. It’s hard driving.”

Me: You’re driving?

Dudelette: Literally almost driving into guard rails for the picture.

Dudelette: And trucks!

Me: You’re driving?

Dudelette: Yup. LOL

Me: No! That’s not safe!

Dudelette: Multi talented, yup, knee steering and all.

Oy.

Scarlette sent a couple of those crazy photos then they pulled over to get a good one. Which made my knees less weak.

They were obviously in a different time zone than we were. And I was SO happy they were not driving but thrilled to see the seatbelt. 😉 And to see them, of course. 🙂

So that’s it. Life on the dude ranch at 65 mph.