And so I joined with my sister, cousin and her daughter along with what seemed like 1/2 of Texas to the wilds of Black Friday. We didn't get out and stand in any silly line, we just planned over and over again our shopping route. Macy's Parade has nothing on us. Sis and I even started out with no coffee. Yes, the first 2 hours with NO coffee!!! NONE.... The "niece" suffered a small casualty. I was successful in most of the adventures, and sis hung in there!
So, today after taking an hour nap (yes, you heard me...an hour nap in 24+hours) I am sitting in the living room listening to my ipod and the new selection of downloaded music.
One of my favorite songs from long ago and far away is one called "I'd Choose You Again" sung by a group called the Forester Sisters. I so love that song. You see, it talks about the fact that if God gave me the chance, I would choose "you boy" again. Can I just share with you that tears streamed down my face. You see, I would have been married 17 years this past week, and IF God said to me," Let's back up and do it all over again."......I would choose Kelly again....and again...and again. This time of year makes me sentimental. The leaves turn colors (yes If there is no early freeze, they do change in Texas). The air finds a little bite in it which causes you to get your groove going. And the smell of Texas in the fall is.....well, Texas in the fall! BUT....then there is the promise of spring. Green Grass, bright green leaves, new calves, baby lambs, baby pigs, and the air....it smells of freshly mowed grass, flowers, the baled hay or just.........Texas in the spring kind of thing. And so.....I listened to my song.."I'd Choose You Again" and think....knowing what I know...knowing where I sit today....I would choose Kelly over and over again. I would choose once again the guys who broke my heart before I met Kelly. Reassures me that not all men are so smart or they would have chosen me for a second date! I would choose you, my friends, all over again!!! Tony, with our different as can be lives, I would choose you again....well, okay, the jury is still out. Does that tell you that even though I have been through 49 changes of the seasons in West Texas and more "seasons" in my life, I am a pretty happy camper as my life goes! Knowing me...I would even choose the stupid roads I have gone down because the wrecks I had were those you learn from.
I will choose over and over again that my favorite time of the year is Thanksgiving (sorry Andy Williams).
Will I choose to do Black Friday again next year? You bet your Starbucks I will.
Oh and did I choose carefully over and over again the foods I ate yesterday? Yes I did. Did you ever notice that turkey and dressing, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes and pecan pie on a plate together create a fall type color scheme?
Will we choose to show pigs next year? You bet your ham hocks we will!
Most of all though .......I will choose You, God.....over and over again. I may not always be the smell of fall or spring to You, but I choose You over and over again! I pray that in the years ahead, I will continue to choose You and Your way over and over again!! It's not an easy road some times, but there is the promise of spring .........and I LOVE green!!!!!
Friday, November 28, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
Pre-Thanksgiving Rambling
I have two things I would like to throw out at you. As we quickly approach Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday of the year, and as I begin to salivate over the thought of turkey and dressing with some cranberry sauce, I am struck by that fact that I was dumb enough to start a diet one week before Thanksgiving. Like that would keep me from shoveling so much of the bird and bread into my mouth. What was I thinking? Hello...I invested money to keep me from over indulging in good healthy food? Okay, I admit..so I did, and hopefully I won't make myself sick on the good cooking. I had to laugh when thinking about that this morning. Here I am calculating my alloted points on a daily basis. Exercising at night. Drinking my water. What IF I don't loose any weight. Well of course I won't blame it on the Thanksgiving meal because you see, I checked the points system and there are no points listed for the amount of drainage going down my throat hourly. There are probably no points listed because there is no way to measure the individual amounts of it. I am sure that if there were points, I am over the limit! And by the way......I have given up my Hot Tamales candy until further notice. Ten candies are worth 3 points...the amount of points out weighs the pleasure.
This brings me to another thought. Why did everyone rejoice when it was announced that Wilbur had jumped up from about 130 to 149 pounds and Bevo was up to 117? No one jumps for joy when I gain weight. It's a great thing for these pigs to gain weight.
Finally....remember the post about my daughter not liking being eleven. I am with her!!! I don't like the age eleven either. It is a weird age. They do weird things. Their body does weird things. Did you realize that eleven is the only number below twenty-one which contains 3 syllables? Think about it...........it is just weird all around. It doesn't even rhyme well. Therefore, I have decided that terrible twos.........and elevens are both rough. My eleven year old has stretched the one syllable word NO into 2 syllables. It is said like this: No-ah! And man, can she stomp. Maybe is we stomped for 45 minutes we would loose weight. However on the positive side.......she has not lost that precious hug, kiss, or "I want to hold your hand, mom" stuff. So......there is one bright thought!
I will just remind you that even though I am dieting before Thanksgiving; I am rejoicing that pigs gain weight; and that eleven is #^&*!$%...This is my life and I will stick with it! I love roller coaster rides!!!
This brings me to another thought. Why did everyone rejoice when it was announced that Wilbur had jumped up from about 130 to 149 pounds and Bevo was up to 117? No one jumps for joy when I gain weight. It's a great thing for these pigs to gain weight.
Finally....remember the post about my daughter not liking being eleven. I am with her!!! I don't like the age eleven either. It is a weird age. They do weird things. Their body does weird things. Did you realize that eleven is the only number below twenty-one which contains 3 syllables? Think about it...........it is just weird all around. It doesn't even rhyme well. Therefore, I have decided that terrible twos.........and elevens are both rough. My eleven year old has stretched the one syllable word NO into 2 syllables. It is said like this: No-ah! And man, can she stomp. Maybe is we stomped for 45 minutes we would loose weight. However on the positive side.......she has not lost that precious hug, kiss, or "I want to hold your hand, mom" stuff. So......there is one bright thought!
I will just remind you that even though I am dieting before Thanksgiving; I am rejoicing that pigs gain weight; and that eleven is #^&*!$%...This is my life and I will stick with it! I love roller coaster rides!!!
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
We now own the t-shirt!
You know the saying...."been there, done that, and got the t-shirt to prove it"? Well, we own the t-shirt (in this case memories) and will probably get more!!! We have finally done something with those pigs other than scoop poop, water, feed, and walk them. We went to a pig show!!
Yep, the country bumpkins got up early on Sat. to head to a jackpot about 95 miles away. We of course had to take two modes of transportation since there were 7 of us and two pigs that needed a trailer.
So, you ask: "How did it go?" Thanks for asking because I am so wanting to share our experience with you. Of course you would have needed to be there to get the whole picture(yes, I took a camera) but this will just have to do until I can figure out how to download the video.
We arrived about 11AM....wanted the pens close to the arena and scales AND since we didn't know the method of operations we wanted to get our feet running with some similarities of a person who knew what was actually going on.
Of course somewhere in the long drive, Wilbur decided to get nosey and put a huge blood blister on his nose. But...thank goodness beauty means nothing, just muscle.
Weight cards were due at 2PM and then the actual show started at 4. Needless to say, standing around in a barn full of pigs, sheep and cows is not every one's idea of fun, and since my mom knew some fun shopping spots downtown, we left the kids with my dad and Jordan, and all women over 20 headed for a little shopping.
Now, I said that the show started at 4, but do you know how many "classifications" of pigs there are? Well, for every breed, you have 3 classes: light, middle and heavy weight. We were lucky to have cross breeds so we were entering the ring at 7PM or there about. You should have been there. My dad was starting to sweat bullets because it was past supper, Kauy was not even in the ring yet, and it was getting late which meant that we would unload in the dark cold of night. Where is that sense of adventure? However, he was provide with entertainment when both pigs (at their own time) shot out past the judge and ran as fast as their pig hiney would go to the other end of the show ring. The judge watched each with a deep respect for our pigs who could weigh that much and still haul butt!
My precious kids were great!!! They did everything they had been told to do. I was so proud of them. My son showed in a class of eleven and placed 7th. My beautiful daughter placed 7th out of nine. That is great since they were showing barrows in classes filled with gilts, and gilts (females) are more mature and shapely than barrows. Have I learned "pig" talk or what? Also they were both showing against at least 5 kids that had shown multiple pigs that day and won top in the classification. So...I was proud of them. They both told my parents that they want to do it again. So....we are signing up for the next one.
So, now we have been there, done that and fell in love with it! Hopefully one day we will own the t-shirt that says, "I brought home the bacon!"
Cement floors - $1,900
Electircity to barn - $700
Feed - 100.00
Shavings - $100
Entry to show - $50.00
Family time with lots of laughter and a sense of pride - priceless!
And none of it was on MasterCard.
Yep, the country bumpkins got up early on Sat. to head to a jackpot about 95 miles away. We of course had to take two modes of transportation since there were 7 of us and two pigs that needed a trailer.
So, you ask: "How did it go?" Thanks for asking because I am so wanting to share our experience with you. Of course you would have needed to be there to get the whole picture(yes, I took a camera) but this will just have to do until I can figure out how to download the video.
We arrived about 11AM....wanted the pens close to the arena and scales AND since we didn't know the method of operations we wanted to get our feet running with some similarities of a person who knew what was actually going on.
Of course somewhere in the long drive, Wilbur decided to get nosey and put a huge blood blister on his nose. But...thank goodness beauty means nothing, just muscle.
Weight cards were due at 2PM and then the actual show started at 4. Needless to say, standing around in a barn full of pigs, sheep and cows is not every one's idea of fun, and since my mom knew some fun shopping spots downtown, we left the kids with my dad and Jordan, and all women over 20 headed for a little shopping.
Now, I said that the show started at 4, but do you know how many "classifications" of pigs there are? Well, for every breed, you have 3 classes: light, middle and heavy weight. We were lucky to have cross breeds so we were entering the ring at 7PM or there about. You should have been there. My dad was starting to sweat bullets because it was past supper, Kauy was not even in the ring yet, and it was getting late which meant that we would unload in the dark cold of night. Where is that sense of adventure? However, he was provide with entertainment when both pigs (at their own time) shot out past the judge and ran as fast as their pig hiney would go to the other end of the show ring. The judge watched each with a deep respect for our pigs who could weigh that much and still haul butt!
My precious kids were great!!! They did everything they had been told to do. I was so proud of them. My son showed in a class of eleven and placed 7th. My beautiful daughter placed 7th out of nine. That is great since they were showing barrows in classes filled with gilts, and gilts (females) are more mature and shapely than barrows. Have I learned "pig" talk or what? Also they were both showing against at least 5 kids that had shown multiple pigs that day and won top in the classification. So...I was proud of them. They both told my parents that they want to do it again. So....we are signing up for the next one.
So, now we have been there, done that and fell in love with it! Hopefully one day we will own the t-shirt that says, "I brought home the bacon!"
Cement floors - $1,900
Electircity to barn - $700
Feed - 100.00
Shavings - $100
Entry to show - $50.00
Family time with lots of laughter and a sense of pride - priceless!
And none of it was on MasterCard.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Thanks mom!
If you have not gone to the movies lately, or if you are one of those who thinks that there is nothing worth your money at the theatre then get up and run to the movies. My mom treated the T(4) to a movie. (That is T to the 4th power!) You must..must...must see Fireproof. I will say no more. Thanks mom! Oh, and she threw in money for a dinner for four. Thanks again!
Well, okay I will say this. This morning I registered 5 students. Yes, 5! One of them really didn't want to be here..not sure why because I love it here even when there is a nasty candle on the warmer! Anyway, as his guardian was walking out the door he looked at the young man and simply said: "It's not where you come from....It's where you are now." Good thought! The guardian had my mom as his counselor in school....Thanks mom!
Well, okay I will say this. This morning I registered 5 students. Yes, 5! One of them really didn't want to be here..not sure why because I love it here even when there is a nasty candle on the warmer! Anyway, as his guardian was walking out the door he looked at the young man and simply said: "It's not where you come from....It's where you are now." Good thought! The guardian had my mom as his counselor in school....Thanks mom!
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