Wishful Thinking.

Sis (and dear Erin!) is in Oklahoma this week, and I am overcome with a combination of homesickness and jealousy every time I think of her in Tishomingo. Last night she and Erin grabbed dinner at Sonic. This morning she leisurely sipped her coffee while walking around the farm, and tomorrow... well, tomorrow, she'll probably be snogging Blake Shelton. That is the most obvious way things are going to progress, isn't it?

In my moments of un-jealousy (yes, now I'm making up words), I'm hoping she's having the most wonderful time. Oklahoma is such a special place for our family. There are just so many people we love in Tishomingo: Erin (for starters- her first visit to the farm!), and Mike and Anna (oh, they are irreplaceable), Uncle Glen and Aunt Nell (country through and through), Gene and Judy Lafitte (what would Tishomingo be without them?), and Gayla and John and Tina and all those kinds folks at Bullard Chapel, and even Grannie Jo's rascally old neighbor who's name has slipped my mind (he has two Pit Bulls and 18 shotguns. I might be exaggerating. Slightly.).

And, of course, there are those who no longer live in Tishomingo, but whose memories still fill the town when we drive across the Pennington Creek bridge, and whose presence is so palpable we talk about them as if they were still with us. Like Aunt Lois, and Grandaddy, and Grannie Jo.

And, those who moved away from Tishomingo- like our Dad. His fingerprints are still all over the town- in his photograph in the old high school up from Main Street, and in the way Jerry West greets him when he walks into the Fish Tales restaurant, and in the Soldiers Memorial that commemorates his service in a brick with his name on it near Pennington Creek.

We must have hundreds of photos from our summers in Tishomingo. I've included just a few below, some favorites of mine. I'm sure Sis will be adding to the collection next week with a slew of her own. [Hopefully that will not include a shot of she and Blake in any compromising situations.]

Watching an Oklahoma sunset with Mike and Anna on Grannie Jo's hill

Visiting with Aunt Nell and Uncle Glen in Grannie Jo's kitchen

View of a pond on the farm

Looking through old photos with Courtney (clearly, funny old photos)

Dad in Tishomingo (circa 1950-something?)

"I miss the big blue skies, the Oklahoma kind" -Carrie Underwood

Our Grannie Jo at Pennington Creek in Tishomingo