Living in Oklahoma

Okay, well not sure where to start, so lets just go in reserve to 1985. Graduated CHS at least somewhere in the middle of the class of 76 students. Went on to OSU in the fall of 1985 and majored in Tumbleweeds! I tried it again for the spring of 1986 and the money was gone, and We( me Mom and Dad) didn't know anything about financial aid, or I would have probably made it on to my degree. 1986 Got acquainted with David Raper's(86) brother. We had hung out before in a group, but we started dating. I left college and landed a job at Liberty Mortgage Company in OKC, a daily computer for the next 10 years. I married Mark in 1989,we bought a small house in Chandler on Bennett Blvd( I still live in the same house) we had two boys Joshua(90) and Jacob(94).

In 1990 Mark started Repoing cars after work for extra income he knew that we were going to have more kids and we had bought the house, so he was going to be the provider. He got really good at hunting people down, and in 1995 a OKC Company head hunted him and he was now a daily computer to OKC. With Jacob just a baby, i decided I needed to get back to Chandler to work. At the same time, Liberty sold out to what was then BancOne, in Indianapolis, so my job was going. I had decided to just take time off and draw my unemployment and see what came my way. When I got word from a friend that a local attorney was looking for a new secretary, so I sent in my Resume and was hired. I had one day off between my years of computing and starting back to work in Chandler.

September 1996 I went to work in Chandler for the local attorney, completely redone her office as she was still typing everything on a word processer, I got in there and redone her technology and we added Gateway Computers and installed new billing software and I was there until March 2007. And for the most part happy.

In December 2004, while me and the boys had traveled to San Antonio to watch the Cowboys plan in the Alamo Bowl Mark had a massive heart attack while home by himself late on December 29, 2004. I had left him a voice mail when we were at the game about 1030, his last email ironicly to me was at 10:23(a Blondie joke). So some point after that he passed.

We got around and were ready to leave San Antonio that next morning and I had tried to call him several times with no answer, that was not real uncommon for him early in the morning because that was when he did his best work( taking peoples cars) So I just waited, when he had not called after I left him several messages, I began to worry, I knew in my gut, something was wrong. I had called his work and they said he had not been in or called yet that day and it was near 10am: I called the neighbor and he said that his truck was still at the house, so I called my Dad he had a key to the house and he came over and went through the house called me back and said that he was not here, but that the truck was here. So I started quizzing Dad, told him to look on the floor by the door and see if his shoes were there( they were) told him to look beside the bed and see if his cell phone was there(it was) he would have never left the house without those two items, so I told day to go through the house again and he did and found him, he had fallen out of his office chair and was lodged under the computer table dead. This was the morning of December 30, now mind you during this time while Dad is walking through the house I am talking to him on the phone, I have had my uncle pull over in a parking lot so that I am not saying all of this in front of my children, I am leaned up against my uncles truck somewhere in Texas. Dad finds him and says "OMG honey, I found him, OMG. OMG, honey I have to go he is dead" and hangs up the phone, so here I am hanging on the phone, in complete shock, and the first thing that comes into my mind is " I hope he had his sweats on" he was notorious for coming home locking the door behind him and hanging out in his underwear all night. So to my relief he had on sweats. I called the neighbor back and told him to get over to my house that Dad was there and that he had found Mark. Called Mom, she said she was trying to get to the house that they had called the Ambulance, but that they were going to have to call the funeral home and that they were going to have to get the medical examiner there. So need less to say I was in total shock, standing in this parking lot, and wondering how I was going to tell my children who were 13 1/2 and 9 at the time that we were in Texas and that their father was dead. I remember getting them out of the truck, my uncle and cousin was with us we stepped over in a little corner in this mall, and I told them that we had to get home that we had business to handle that Grandpa had found Daddy and he was gone, that he was dead. I remember it sounding so cold as I said it, and then I said "we have to all be strong and we have to get on the road and get home, now get in the truck and lets go. "

Now, it seems every 30 minutes I have to stop to pee, I need to get home, but can't stop this urgent urgency to go pee every 30 minutes, needless to stay it was the longest drive home I have every had. We got to Chandler about 7:30 and my tiny home was full of people, I remember there being so many people parked at my house and on the street that there was no place for my uncle to pull in, he just stopped in the street and we got out and my Mom meet me at the truck door, Dad was right behind her and my best friends were right behind them, Mark's whole family was here, my entire church family, all my aunts and uncles and cousins, Mom said that I could stay at her house for the night, but I refused, I told her that I had a home and that I was going to stay at my home.

Fast forward to Jan 4, 2005 we buried Mark in a complete redneck NASCAR funeral, all the pall bears wore Nascar shirts, everyone was instructed not to dress up for the funeral, that Mark was a laid back guy and he would not want people dressing up, so most people did not. Mark was in his favorite black Dale Earnhardt Sr shirt with his red Budweiser jacket his bud hat and his un glasses, a fresh pack of cigarette's in his pocket, the lighter I gave him the night we were married and the boys put in a picture of them with their Dad. We made a CD of all his favorite songs and played them at the funeral, no sappy stuff for him.There was over 400 people at his funeral, which was crazy, I never thought that many people would be there.

The next few months were rough, but with God's grace I played the hand he dealt me. Don't get me wrong, I would love to reverse all of this and have him back, but for some reason God decided his time here was done, I never asked why I just tried to understand that it was truly out of my hands, and that you really do have to live each day to the fullest and tell the ones you love how much you do. I has truly made me a better person and a better Mother,Daughter, Friend, etc... Now by June 2005 I went on my first date, it was more like a get out of the house thing, but none the less got me back in the loop. In late August we had a girls night out and they were talking about Internet dating and that I should give it a try. So I did, signed up on Match.com and started stalking other single people. Met some really great guys, several of them are still friends, then one night late a guy named Jerry winked at me, I started talking to him after about a month of conservation and me looking up all his "record" on the Internet, he was a little older and I thought,well I could at least go on a pity date with this poor guy, so I did that was October 22 2005 and we have spoken every day since. He lived in Ponca City, but has since moved to Chandler and lives in a house he rents around the block from me. I have no need to get married, I like not asking anyone if I want new shoes, or anything else for that matter, Jerry has been married several times, so he does not have a good track record, So we are happy just being us, We go to dinner, to concerts, and to the movies and then each go to our respective homes, and it seems to work for us.

Now jump back to the job, after Mark died, I went back to school in January 2006 at Rose State to work on my bachelors degree in Counseling, we had done some after the loss, and I wanted to give back,(people tell me I have a gift for listening and giving wise advice)?? ( not sure they are talking about me) then in November of 2006 I over heard a conservation that the current tag agent was going to retire and that a new one would be appointed, I met with her, we spoke and I put in my application to get the appointment from the State Senator, which I had been an aquatiance of. Needless to say I worked my charm, got over 40 recommendation letters and was appointed on March 7, 2007, My Aunt and Uncle helped me post the $35000 bond for the first year of my appointment and I now own my own business, and am the local Tag Agent. I now have 28 hours of college time in and will pursue my degree a few hours at a time, as I can.

Josh is a SR this year at CHS and has recently enrolled at the Tulsa Welding School, he is a true redneck boy, Jacob is also, and he will be a freshmen at CHS next fall, so I will soon have an empty nest, Some days I am very excited about that, other days it is so hard it brings me to tears.

But with all that we are good and life is good here in Oklahoma. I have a big Alumni party every year during CHS Alumni for all who want to come by. If you ever get back this way, give me a shout, anytime.

I see and talk to Becky often, she works at the local courthouse in the assessors office, and has three kids, two small kids and one in college at Miami,OK

How's that for a little info.