4th of July Activities

Jesse and I had a great weekend with my family for the 4th. Hope all of you had a great 4th of July as well.

Started with a round of putt-putt with the parents.

Mom's flag creation...I helped :)

And this is what it did almost all day on the 4th. It did stop for enough time to pop fireworks and then it started again.

The rain did not stop mom and dad from grilling our lunch.

Oh and I also got to see the new Twilight movie with my mom and sister. I won't spoil anything but it was a GREAT movie, now if I could only convince Jesse to see them with me. Any suggestions on how I can do that?

-Heather

New Job!

I officially have a job!!!! Can you tell I am a bit excited? It has been a tough two months of never ending searching and rejection...it can really take a toll on yourself.

Who I (will) work for: United Way

What is United Way? A non-profit organization that works with nearly 1,300 local United Way offices throughout the country in a coalition of charitable organizations to pool efforts in fund raising and support. The focus of United Way is identifying and resolving pressing community issues, as well as making measurable changes in the communities through partnerships with schools, government agencies, businesses, organized labor, financial institutions, community development corporations, voluntary and neighborhood associations, the faith community, and others. The issues United Way offices focus on are determined locally because of the diversity of the communities served. However, the main focus areas include Education, Income and Health.
According to (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Way_of_America)

My title: Assistant to the campaigns and marketing director.

What I will do: I get to work on every detail on putting on an event, some writing of press releases and letters to supporters/volunteers, find volunteers and financial supporters for our events, work with some Photoshop and InDesign for fliers and such and of course answer phones and stuff envelopes. This is a new position they are creating, so I will get to help define it.

This job is right up my ally. I love working with the community and having that since of attachment to where I live. I start Tuesday July 6th, so I will let you all know how it goes.

Family Visitors

This past weekend my sister, brother-in-law, and niece and nephew visited Jesse and I. They had never seen our new house so we got to give the grand tour, although my niece and nephew only cared about finding the stair case. The stairs kept the kids busy and happy.

Saturday night we took the kids to a place called Kiddie Park. It is just a bunch of rides for little kids and the rides only cost 25 or 50 cents per ride, so pretty cheap entertainment. Afterward we went for some snow cones, my favorite summer time treat.

I tried to find the history on Kiddie Park, but could not find much. All I know is that it first opened in 1947. The rides have obviously been updated since then, but some of them look original. I will show you what I mean in one of the photos.

Lillian riding the airplanes

Riding the train

Look at the old horses on this ride. A closer look reveals more about its age, but I did not get a close up picture of them.

Look at the face! Lucas did NOT want to ride this one.

Last ride, the carousal. The worker had to push start the ride and help stop it.

We all rode of course and Jesse insisted he wear his Polo tucked into his athletic shorts with blue flip flops and a cowboy hat. Yes, we did get lots of stares. Brent was getting in trouble by Lillian because he was riding his horse backwards.

Jesse acting goofy and making me laugh...as usual. It's one of the things that I love so much about him though.

Sunday was church and then back on the road for the Young family. Jesse and I had a wonderful time with them.

-Heather

Where In The World Have We Been Now?

More traveling for the McKee's: Jesse and I went to North Dakota and Minnesota this past weekend. We have a goal of going to all 50 state's together. Jesse had never been to North Dakota and we had a free weekend so we decided why not? I was not on board at first with the idea of driving that far over a weekend, but then Jesse pointed out that Mall of America was only four hours from ND so then I became a little more interested.

We drove through Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, South Dakota, North Dakota and Minnesota. I had never been to 4 out of the 7 states, so I got to check a lot off of my list.

So almost everyone collects something from their trips, my mom and Jesse's mom always collect Christmas ornaments. Some people collect those silver spoons, shot glasses and state magnets, Jesse and I just collect pictures. We take a picture of each state we are in and then we plan on making a decoration out of it with the map of the U.S. It will look pretty cool when it's all said and done. Oh and we do also collect Christmas ornaments from our trips.

What do you all collect from your trips?

Kansas

Nebraska

Iowa
South Dakota (Favorite pic)

North Dakota
Minnesota
This place was crazy!

Lego's

Jesse in front a Dino made of Lego's

Weather on our trip: Mid 60's and 70's, still needed a light jacket.

Fun facts of Mall of America:

The mall is located on the same land where the Minnesota Twins once played baseball...before they moved to the Metro dome in downtown Minneapolis/St. Paul. http://www.funtrivia.com/en/subtopics/Mall-of-America-140015.html

Seven Yankee Stadiums would fit inside Mall of America. http://www.justforkidz.org/mallofamerica_facts.asp

Walking distance around one level of Mall of America is .57 of a mile. http://www.justforkidz.org/mallofamerica_facts.asp

Spending 10 minutes in every store would take a shopper more than 86 hours to complete their visit to Mall of America. http://www.justforkidz.org/mallofamerica_facts.asp

Advice: Take two days to go to the Mall of America, our legs are still tired from all of our walking!

-Heather

Moving, Family and Friends

I can sum up this post with one word, BUSY! Busy is what Jesse and I have been for the past couple of weeks. We moved into our new house in Bartlesville Wednesday May 19th and since then we have had six guests come visit us. Jesse and I had a great time with all of our guests, most of them we had not seen in a while so it was good to spend time with them. Now that they are all gone I don't know what to do with myself! To say my life will go back to normal is incorrect, I don't know what normal is yet in Bartlesville since we have had so many guests. But the house is clean so if anyone else would like to visit, Jesse and I would love to have you come see us! And I am getting much better at cooking for a crowd. For the past year I had only cooked for Jesse so my cooking skills have really been put to the test and I can say proudly that I succeeded.

Pictures from our past busy weeks.

Moving Truck. It was very nice to have someone pack, load and unpack all of our stuff.

Mom helping me plant flowers.

The Finished project. The flowers have already bloomed so much since we planted them.

In front of Frank Phillips Home.
Woolaroc Adventures(Stands for Woods, Lakes, Rocks)

Mike and Kim in front of an old oil derrick in Johnstone Park.

Jesse with his mom on an old railroad track. One of the side adventures we took.

All the things we did while our guests we're here:

Toured the antique district of Dewey; Went to an old time soda shoppe; Tom Mix Museum; Toured downtown; Keepsake candle factory; Toured Frank Phillips home; Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa; Went to two different parks; Explored Bartlesville; Woolaroc Museum and Wildlife preserve.

I am sure I missed something. The great part is that there is still stuff to do!

This weekend is Sunfest here is Bartlesville. Not 100% sure what it is, but Jesse and I are going. My guess is that it is some type of music festival or mini fair.

I will try to do a better job this month on keeping you all posted.

-Heather

Blogging Help

I need help with my blog. I recently discovered that I am a follower of my own blog! I have no idea how long it has been there or how I did it. Maybe some of you have realized it, but I promise I am not that desperate for followers to sign myself up for my own blog. Does anyone know how to "un"follow a blog?

Latest Project

I have been wanting to recover my dinning room chairs for a long time and today I finally did it! I had a friend come over and help me or else I don't think I would have known where to begin. The project was pretty easy. It was no professional job, but I am proud of it. This is the same dinning room set I grew up with so it was time for a change.

BEFORE

Jesse and I had the hardest time deciding what color to go with (we have totally different tastes), but we finally agreed on red.

AFTER

Other News:

This is my last week of work at the Ponca City Eye Clinic, after this week it is time to get serious in another job search in Bartlesville.

Jesse and I close on our house this Friday!