Oklahoma Nesties
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Oklahoma City?
Hi ladies! DH and I may be moving to Oklahoma City in the next couple of months. Can someone tell me what it's like there? Weather, jobs, schools, things to do. Anything would be helpful!
A little background on me. We are coming from VA, 2 small kids, DH has a job, I'll be looking for one. I've been a gov't contractor for the military for the past 6 years or so.
Re: Oklahoma City?
I grew up in Chicago, and I've lived in OKC for almost 10 years now and love it.
It has grown so much in the past few years it's crazy.
Let's see... cost of living is super cheap. I tell out-of-town people what we paid for our house, and their jaws drop. Weather is decent--gets pretty hot in the summer (sits in the 90s, but usually for a few weeks goes over 100), and it can be a little humid. Winters you don't usually see more than a few inches of snow, this past winter being the exception. We do get ice storms on occasion though, and they pretty much can shut the city down. Winters are pretty short though, and it's generally only coat weather mid-November through late February or so, if even that.
There's a decent amount to do here depending on what you like. Shopping is average, but Dallas is only two or three hours away so a lot of people go down there for really good shopping. We have a really good zoo, great downtown area, good sporting events (University of Oklahoma is in Norman, which is just 20 minutes south of OKC, and we have the OKC Thunder NBA team), and some really great annual events too (excellent state fair, arts festival, etc.). The "nightlife" area of OKC is Bricktown, an old warehouse district downtown. It's a great area with restaurants, some shops, a few clubs (if you're into that), a movie theatre, etc.
As far as jobs, it depends what you want to do. There are several very large oil companies based out of OKC, in addition to a ton of smaller ones. But overall I think the job market isn't too terrible, though if you're in PR or advertising it can be a b!tch.
Hope that helps! The majority of us on the board are from the Oklahoma City area, so feel free to ask any questions. If you do move here, we do have regular get togethers, so that would be a good opportunity for you to meet some of us!
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Thank you so much! From your comments and my research online, it seems like a great place to live. I've heard from a friend that Edmond is a nice area? Any areas to stay away from? My main concerns are schools- my son is 3 so I have a couple of years to really figure that out- and a good job. My work experience includes business process improvement, communications/public affairs, and knowledge management. I have a Bachelors and Masters in Business Administration.
And I would love to join a get together if things work out. Thanks again!
I've lived here since 07 and have loved it. There is alot to do. There is professional and college basketball, baseball, hockey, and football games. Also the shopping is really good. They are actaully building an outlet mall here and I think it should be done by next fall (very excited about that).
The weather is pretty decent. The summer can get really hot but it doesn't last that long. Also the same with winter. We usually get some snow storms but with the exception of the last year they don't get too bad.
I don't know too much about the schools yet since I do not have a child currently going to them. Hope that helps. And you'll definetly need to come to a gtg so we can meet you.
Edmond is a nice area, and several people on the board live there. Other areas with decent school districts are Moore (and portions of SW OKC are in the Moore School District, which is nice), Norman, Yukon and Mustang. We live in SW OKC and love it--a great area, but a LOT less traffic than Edmond.
If you have worked for the government, I would start checking out USA Jobs and Oklahoma State jobs and see if anything looks appealing to you. Otherwise, indeed.com is a good resource for searches as well.
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I can't thank you enough! You can only find out so much from random internet searches, so this helps a lot.
This does help! I am a city girl and it makes me happy to hear there is a lot to do in the area. I've heard you really get all four seasons there, which would be nice. In VA we go from summer to winter and back, it seems.
We definitely get all four seasons, though our winters can vary in temperature wildly from the 70s one day to 30s the next. It was below freezing most of Thanksgiving day and a few days before Christmas we broke a record high well into the 70s! You just never know.
The thing I love about OKC is the centralized location both within the state and the nation. It isn't that long of a flight anywhere, and not that long of a drive to some cool places in state. I encourage you to branch out of OKC once you get settled and see just what our beautiful state has to offer
There are many lakes for boating, camping, fishing, etc., lots of rivers for canoeing/floating, mountains for hiking, swamps, forests, salt plains, wildlife refuges, and plenty of urban life opportunities between both OKC and Tulsa.
It sounds beautiful! My husband is the outdoorsy type from rural Colorado so this sounds right up his alley.
Deer Creek has really good schools This is an area to the west of Edmond. It is also very affordable. Norman and Edmond also have really good schools.
Oklahoma City is really easy to get around. I commuted from Edmond/Deer Creek to the south side and Tinker and it was never bad. A few slow downs in certain areas but most of the time it was 60+ mph.
Come on to OKC.. it's a great place! There really is so much to do. And yes, you cannot beat the cost of living.
For schools? I would say try to be in Edmond, Deer Creek, Moore, or Norman schools. Bethany is an awesome school district (!) and Putnam City isn't bad (?). Outside of public schools, there are fantastic private schools around.
And everyone else had great points: lots to do. Great zoo, sports activities, downtown. And it really is a growing district as well. And I believe that there are good amounts of job availabilities.
Hope this helps you! Good luck with your decision/ move!
I just moved to Edmond from Indiana/Ohio a year and a half ago. I don't know a nicer way to say this, but from an outsider's perspective, OK is a study in contraditions. The weather is 70 one day and 30 the next. The people are so insanely nice but the politics seem very exclusionary. In general, folks are quite religious, but the teen pregnancy rates, addiction rates and domestic abuse rates are among the highest in the nation.
I feel very lucky to have met a few awesome women here (that seem to have GREAT friendship possibilities!) via Nestie Gettogethers, so, please, come join us!
I'm already looking forward to meeting all the great ladies on this thread! I should now within about a week if we'll be OKC-bound, so I'll post again when I know. My fingers are crossed!
This makes me laugh because it is SO TRUE. However, as I said at a girl's night once, I consider Oklahoma to be a fixer-upper. Can't do much about the weather except be prepared (and you never have to "pack away" your winter or summer clothes because you use them almost year-round!) but we can do our best to try and improve our political standpoint by being vocal about those contradictions.
Mustang and Yukon have great school systems and are nice places to live. Both are very close the the city!
I live in Mustang now, but went to high school in Norman. Mustang is growing on me, it is a little smaller than what I normally like, but it is easy to get to OKC and everywhere in the metro. It is a nice little city and easy to meet people from the churches to sports. Norman is fun and a bigger city if you like that. There is more in Norman than Mustang, but like I said everything is easy to get too. The schools in Mustang, Yukon, Edmond, Norrman, Moore, and some in OKC are good too! The cost of living is great! I love Oklahoma! I have lived here for about 8 years and this is HOME!
P.S. My mom is a realtor out of Norman, but travels everywhere in the metro if you do not already have a realtor or a house set up. She is such a people person and has sold some homes to others that were moving from out-of-state as well. Her link:
http://www.amybladow.com/