Stopping to Smell the Knot Holes?

The more I work around the ranch--yes, I'm calling it a ranch since we had cows on it--the more interesting things I find to photograph. Today, I took some shots of unusual knot holes and I'll share a few of them with you. Humor me, I live life in the slow lane.

Former home of our dinner a couple of nights ago.
(See previous post.)

Maybe a bobcat's lair? (I have a good imagination.)

I think the Keebler Elves live here.
"Hellooooo....still waiting for my Fudge Shoppe Coooookieees."

Squirrelly

This squirrel is taking up way too many picture frames on our game cam, not to mention the drain on the batteries. Today, while Neal was supposed to be working on fences, I heard some gun shots. If you're an animal rights activist or the least bit squeamish, you may want to stop reading.....now.

My day consisted of cleaning out "Jeff's room" and then tackling the garage. Around 3:30, I deserved a break and took a glass of iced water to the Adirondack chair for a little rest and relaxation. Wait a minute--what's that by the deck steps? Seems our furry friend...had friends. Three friends. And they all ended up on our supper table. Cause that's what a cool wife I am. Fried those little guys up and Neal was in hog--I mean SQUIRREL--heaven. For those of you dying of suspense, no, I didn't fry the heads. My husband is a lucky man, but not THAT lucky. Some of you may remember the story of the time he cooked dinner for me. That's right--fried squirrel. I walked in the door after work and smelled dinner. Everything was ready and on the table, the centerpiece being a platter of squirrel, including all the little heads, fried up and placed around the rim of the platter, facing out. Needless to say, my appetite disappeared pronto. It's the thought that counts though, right?

I know you all want my famous Fried Squirrel recipe, so here it is:

4 squirrels, skinned and cut up by your macho husband into small pieces so that they no longer resemble fetuses (throw away the hind legs--they're not tender like the rest)
1 cup flour
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups vegetable oil

Heat oil in heavy iron skillet that your grandma handed down to you.
Roll small squirrel parts in salted and peppered flour
Fry until golden brown

Bailey, feel free to add this recipe to your Thursday night repertoire. That is, unless you're one of the ones that stopped reading after the first paragraph.

Fireproof

Saturday night our Wednesday night marriage class went to watch the movie Fireproof. This is a low budget film, and although none of the actors will be nominated for an Oscar, I have to say that the movie was EXCELLENT. I highly recommend it for anyone who is married or is considering marriage. And for those of you who have already seen it.....does Kirk Cameron not look amazingly like a young Mel Gibson????? Our marriage class has been studying the book "Becoming One" and this movie was eerily parallel to the homework we've been doing over the past 13 weeks. Scary. Anyway, that's my plug. GO SEE IT. You won't be sorry.

Minnesota, eh?

We returned home late last night after a whirlwind trip to Minnesota, where Jeff will be in a training program with his new job for the next several months. He picked up the U-Haul on Saturday and thanks to my nagging him all week about getting his stuff together, we managed to have everything loaded by Saturday afternoon. We opted to put his car on a trailer and pull it behind the U-Haul. Jeff positioned Stewie Griffin behind the wheel, where he leered menacingly at any who dared pass. Neal and Jeff drove the U-Haul truck, while I followed in my Pilot. It gave them some quality bonding time and gave me some solitude. We made a stop in KC to pick up Jeff's TV, entertainment center, bed, table and chairs. His renters had graciously put everything in the living room, ready to load, so it was done in short order. I was pleasantly surprised at how clean and nice everything looked at his KC house. Granted, they knew we were coming, but still, what 20-something men consider clean and neat and what I consider clean and neat, are usually quite different.

The drive was gorgeous and the weather perfect on Sunday. We stayed the night at Ames, Iowa. This is where I learned a valuable lesson. You don't have to use Priceline.com to bargain for room rates. Jeff had a maximum amount for which he could be reimbursed from his company. We went to the Mariott and found that the prices were too high. I asked about the AAA price....a little lower, but still too high. I said, "is that the cheapest you have?" to which he asked "how much do you want to pay?" So I told him, and there you go, we named our price and got our rooms. Guess it doesn't pay much to have empty rooms.

Monday--moving-in day--was not as nice weatherwise. It began raining before we crossed the Minnesota border and the temperature was in the 40's. Brrrrrr! Owatonna is a beautiful little town. The leaves were breath-taking. The pictures don't do them justice.

We had no trouble finding his apartment, which we originally thought was above a restaurant, then later found out was a bar/pool hall. (Turns out most of the restaurants in Owatonna are bars.) Anyway....God saw fit to give us a break from the rain during the unloading of the U-Haul. His landlord was very friendly, helpful, and apologetic that the roof had sprung a leak that morning, causing a constant dripping into a barrel on top of the toilet! Of course, as usual, I desperately needed the bathroom and had to hold an umbrella while peeing. Sorry, no pictures!

After making a gazillion trips up and down the 23 steps to his apartment (my calves are still screaming) we were completely unloaded by lunchtime. Had a quick bite at Subway, then Jeff was ready for us to leave. "Dad, please get Mom out of here before she starts organizing and decorating!"

Neal and I drove 4 hours to Wausau, WI because we couldn't possibly be that far north without seeing our good friends Todd and Lisa. They took us out to dinner, then put us up for the night. We left yesterday morning and 15 hours later were in our own bed.

Atwoods--It's the New Walmart

In light of the falling economy, I'm doing what I can to cut back. Walmart is my "grocery store of choice" even though I hate how spread out it is and the long check-out lines. My biggest problem with Wally World is that I never come out with just groceries. I always see something, strategically placed, that I didn't know I needed until I saw it. It really blows my grocery budget. For the next three months, Discover is giving 5% cash back on purchases at grocery stores/markets. You guessed it, Walmart is NOT included, since it is classified as a discount store. So I'm doing all my shopping at Homeland, Reasors, and Warehouse Market. No temptations to buy home decor, clothing, or the latest kitchen gadget.

Now....for my new weakness...Atwoods. Yeah, you can call me a red-neck...I'm getting rather used to the idea. Run in for dog food and come out with a baker's rack. Go figure. I've also had my eye on some boots to wear around the farm--you know, building fires, shoveling manure, hauling limbs, etc., etc., but they didn't have my size. Today we went to Atwoods for 2 bags of deer corn. My heart actually started racing when I saw the racks and racks of Carhartts standing proudly in the aisles. How convenient would that be to throw some overalls on over my clothes to run out and do chores? And they have the Ladies' sizes in now for the Fall???? Oh, be still my heart. Then, Neal saw the jackets to match and INSISTED, I say, INSISTED that I needed one for those long winter months. Might as well check out the boot inventory while we're here. YES! (hand pump) they've got MY boots in MY size. Oh....I've got to stay out of Atwoods.

Liam's Home!

Liam had a nice surprise yesterday, October 8, which just happened to be his 11th birthday. The doctors agreed to let him go home! Liam's pain has lessened and he's able to eat small amounts of solid food without puking his guts up. His counts (pancreas) are still high and not going down, but maybe he just needs to be at home and out of the depressing hospital. He still needs lots of prayer for healing, both physical and emotional. But praise God, he is home!

God's Peace

Now that Lauren is 2, she can go with me to BSF. They had a spot waiting for her and today was her first day. Since I kept Jacob five days a week for his first two years, but have not done the same with Lauren, I thought this would be a great way for us to have "our day." Going to Bible study in the morning, eating lunch together, staying at my house the rest of the day. I've been looking forward to this day for a few months, but as the day grew closer, I began to be anxious about it. What if she cried when I left her in class? What if she hated it? What would her teachers be like? Would I be able to enjoy MY Bible study, or would I be worried about her the entire time? When we arrived (early, I might add), the sweet lady at the Children's desk told us we'd have to wait a few minutes because the leaders were still having prayer. Very cool. They pray before the kids arrive. The leaders finished and went to their designated rooms and I walked Lauren down the hall to hers. And who should be her teacher? LeeAnn, an old friend of mine who's husband played baseball with Neal. She also knows Jeremy and Trista and taught aerobics at the Gym where Trista also taught. I felt so comfortable leaving Lauren in her hands. God helped me through the two hours of worship, discussion and lecture, with only a fleeting, occasional thought of Lauren's well-being. My discussion leader asked if I'd brought my granddaughter today and I said yes. She asked, "Is she the only girl in her class?" I said, "yes, I think she is." She said that the discussion leaders prayed for her yesterday, being told there was a new 2 yr. old coming in that would be in a class full of boys. Wow. Lots of praying going on. During discussion group, I wondered where my good friend, Martha, was today. Guess what! She was volunteering in, none other than, Lauren's class, today. God is so good! LeeAnn and Martha both bragged about how good Lauren did in her first BSF class. I think I can be at peace and enjoy the rest of the year.

Hayrides, Horses, and Hot Dogs

Today is Lauren's 2nd birthday. We celebrated last night with hayrides, horses, and hot dogs. Trista's older brother, Jerrod brought a beautiful horse and gave everyone rides. Of course, I declined....scared to death of animals bigger than me.

Something tells me Lauren wasn't too thrilled either. A girl after my own heart.

But there were plenty of other kids who thought it was great. Especially Jacob and Piercen, who thought it was the perfect opportunity to try out their new cowboy boots.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the hayrides...even BEFORE the ride. Just the hay, all by itself, had a way of invoking fun and frolic.

Neal was in his element, pulling the hay wagon all over the farm...underneath low-hanging branches...over bumps and dips...and the adults as well as the kids whooped it up. (Is whoop a word?....I think it is in Oklahoma.)


My grandkids don't much get into photo-taking. Maybe Jacob was just ticked off that nobody would wipe the Nacho Cheese Doritos off his face before snapping candid shots.

Emma, on the other hand, is very photogenic and I had to throw this in cause she's so dadgum cute!

This is my "no really, I'm having fun" smile, when I'm totally worried sick that one of these kids is gonna fall off the trailer and under a wheel and be crushed to death.


After it was good and dark, Neal, Jeremy and Jeff schemed to make the last ride for the kids "unforgetable." The boys took off to the woods, sock caps and green flashlight in hand and hid behind the trees waiting for the unsuspecting hayriders. When they jumped out, Jacob and Braden "hit the deck" and Emma was still crying when they got back to the house. Fun times at the Blevins' Farm.

Jeff's contribution to the party was his gift of photography. He did his best to get the kids to calm down enough for a photo shoot and got some very good pics. Except of course of my grandkids, who, as I said, aren't much into photo-taking.

Probably safe to say a modeling career is not in their future.

Braden (Jacob & Lauren's cousin)

Aubrey (little doll)

Picture-perfect Emma (also sister to Aubrey)


Jamison and Haylee (cousins to Jacob & Lauren)

Garrison, Piercen & Baylor

Trista and Lauren

It was a fantastic evening. We couldn't have asked for better weather, Lauren was inundated with gifts, the hot dogs and cupcakes were delicious and there weren't even any flies to bother us.

What?!? High heels??? You gotta be kiddin' me!

Notice one jean leg tucked inside the boot--one untucked. What a trend-setter.

More pictures (I know, can you believe it?) will be posted on Facebook.

!Termino! (It's Finished)

Last night was my last Spanish class. Actually, it wasn't really "class." We all met at Tijuana (the restaurant, not the city) for a celebration. Some of our spouses and one of the students' kids also came and we had a total of 22 at the table. It was great fun as we tried speaking to the Spanish waiters and reminisced about the last 6 weeks. We had such a diverse group, taking the class for various reasons, including: those of us who were mission-minded, a couple of nurses, some men in the construction business, a restaurant owner, a real-estate appraiser, a software developer, Jonathan & Jessica, who are going to Honduras next week, etc., etc. Each week, our teacher would give us all a chance to ask her to translate a specific phrase in Spanish, one that was specific to our field. This exercise became a favorite and was the source of much of the fun and laughter we enjoyed throughout the semester. Here are some of my favorites (you may need to use them some day and you'll thank me):

Jessica: Can I flush the toilet paper? Puedo hechar papel?
Kelly: I need to see your incision. Necesito ver tu incision.
Terry: Right click on the desktop. Haz click a la derecha.
Emily: My child has discipline problems. Mi nino tiene problemas de disciplina.
Lacy: Please calm down! Calmese, por favor!
Sarah: Don't jump on the furniture. No saltes en los muebles.
Cute Construction Boy (sorry, can't remember his name, just his cute smile): Go get the re bar. Trai la varilla.
Terry: You need a dual connection for the videocard. Nececitas una coneccion dual para la videocard.
Dan: I'm calling to appraise your house. Hablo para valuar su casa.
Stephen: Get off the tractor! Bajate del tractor! (I may need this one myself.)

Here is a picture of our teacher, Elvira (El-bee-rah) with her favorite, brightest, star pupils:

My face looks really big in this picture. Is my face really that big? Now I'm paranoid.

I would love to take the Spanish II class that starts in a couple of weeks, but don't want to make the long drive by myself every week. Trying to talk someone into going with me. Any takers?

Update on Liam

You guessed it, this is Liam with the OSU Men's Basketball team, along with a mountain of stuffed animals (that's Liam in the middle--kinda looks like a scene from E.T.). I wish I had a great report for you, but Liam is still not doing well. I think he's holding out for the OU Football team. There is still some leakage from his kidney and his pancreas numbers are still way too high. I think Kathy said it was about 205 today and it needs to be 60. He's been throwing up a lot and has had to endure countless enemas, with no progress. He still has a feeding tube, which they had to move today--Ouch! They also drained his lungs again today. As you can imagine, after more than 3 weeks in the hospital, he is discouraged and depressed. His parents are trying to steer him into optimism, telling him to say, "I feel a little better today than I did yesterday." To which he answered, "But I don't feel better today." Poor little guy! Liam loves to read, and therefore has a massive vocabulary. He had the doctors cracking up today as they worked on him by saying things like, "this is making me feel disoriented" and "I feel a sensation....." He will probably come out of this with more knowledge of the human body and medicine than most college kids. Please continue to pray for him.

Favorite Phrases

Friday afternoon, I picked Jacob up from school. From the moment he saw me walking down the hall, all the way to the car, buckling up in the car seat, he was talking non-stop. He could hardly get a breath. I pulled out of the parking lot and onto the highway and he said, "Nana, you want me to shut my eyes til we get there?" I said, "sure." Two minutes later, he was in a sound sleep. Slept through getting out of the car seat, being carried around while getting a pillow and blanket, and being put down on my bed. Slept for two hours. Of course, it was one of the stories I told Neal when he got home and we had a good laugh. Yesterday, we worked outside all day, Neal mowing and me preparing the deck and starting the process of waterproofing it. Last night, Neal and Jeff were watching the football game and I laid down on the couch with Neal. I said, "you want me to shut my eyes til the game's over?" I think it's my new favorite saying.

Here are a couple others.

When the boys were little, around 3 and 5, we were driving along and hit a big chug hole. Jeffrey popped up from the back seat and said, "What the hall was that?" to which Jeremy immediately whipped his head back and forth between us to see if we were going to punish his little brother for the obscenity. To this day, Neal and I will occasionally use that same phrase. It just stuck.

Our Wisconsin friends' son gave us another. When Kyle was very young, maybe 3, he would make a statement and then end with "eeder" (either?) which changed the statement to a negative. It might have had something to do with a phrase made popular on SNL (the "good" years...80's). For instance..."that's hilarious--not!". But Kyle would say something like, "I like vegetables--eeder." It caught on, and made perfect sense to all of us who were in the circle. Thanks, Kyle, you were great entertainment.

So, is there a word or phrase that you've adopted from one of your kids or grandkids? I'd love to hear them. (Actually I just like getting comments on my blog, so I'm fishing.)

Celebrity

Liam remains in the hospital. Some days, he seems to be making progress. Yesterday, he had a rough day, with his numbers up again and more leaking from his kidney. He is such a trooper, though. On Tuesday, while I was visiting, he was being a typical 10 (almost 11) year old, banging his casted arms and his hard head against the railing of his bed and flopping one of his many (and I mean MANY) teddy bears around like he was delirious. His mom warned him that they'd put him in the psych ward if didn't quit. It just so happened that earlier that morning, he was visited by Jared, the Subway mogul, who was spreading the word about healthy eating to the children at the hospital. We even got to see Liam and Jared on the Channel 6 news at noon. He ate a cup of fruit that Jared brought and as of the time I left, he had been able to keep it down....a first since the accident almost 3 weeks ago. Several days ago, the OSU Girls Basketball team paid him a visit. Can't complain about that! Kendria, who goes to church with me, works with OSU and volunteers for the Coaches vs. Cancer campaign. She was kind enough to send some of the pictures taken of Liam with the basketball team. As Kendria said, you can hardly tell Liam from the teddy bear....he's just so darned cute!

Another Friday Night

Well....it's Friday-Out-to-Dinner-Night again. Tonight there are 11 head of cattle in all, grazing to their little ole hearts' content. So why am I eating leftovers? Doesn't seem quite fair.

Dinner with Jacob

Last night, Jeremy and his family came over so that Jeremy could do some target practicing with his bow. Neal has constructed a wall of hay bales around the target since he's already lost 2 arrows. Of course, once in awhile Mr. Blackbull rearranges the stacks. I was cooking dinner, between reading bits and pieces of The Rainbow Fish (mainly on the scary Octopus page) to Lauren and helping Jacob set up his cowboys and horses. When Jacob decided to come help me in the kitchen, he noticed there were only three placemats on the table. He insisted that we ALL have placemats, so I put him to work setting the table. Oh, what a great helper he was! After placing all the plates, napkins and silverware, he saw a package of pretzels in my open cupboard and decided that he would put a handful in each plate. Nice side dish to our dinner of barbecue meatballs, macaroni and cheese, broccoli, and bread and butter, don't you think? Neal was running a bit late and since Wednesday night is church night, we had to start without him. Once we were all at the table, Jacob said, "Guys, we hafta pray!" Oh yeah, I knew that. So we all bowed our heads and Jacob sang this precious song: (to the tune of Frerer Jacques or Are You Sleeping for those of you who aren't familiar with the French version)

God is thank you
God is thank you
For our food
For our food
God is berry thank you
God is berry thank you
God is good
God is good.

Oh, be still my heart. It was so sweet. *sigh*

When Neal drove up, Jacob rushed to fill Papa's plate, putting spoonfuls of each dish on his plate for him. During dinner, Jacob kept us entertained with his stories. He had been running a temperature the day before and didn't go to school yesterday. I asked him what was wrong and he said, "I couldn't open my eyes," and began demonstrating how he tried to open them, and they just stayed shut. Then he told us about how he'd had diarrhea and the toilet wouldn't flush, and the water and poop just kept coming up and up and they were all gonna die, but Daddy got that orange thing and put it in the toilet and then the water went down and they didn't die. It was a lovely dinner.

Go Yankees!

As I mentioned before, Jeremy and Trista went to New York City recently. Jeremy has been a Yankee fanatic as long as I can remember. While some dream of traveling abroad, or a trip to Hawaii, Jeremy's long-time desire has been to go to Yankee Stadium and watch his beloved team play at home. Time was running out. Sunday was the last day to play in "The House that Ruth Built."

They stayed at the Grand Hyatt, right at Grand Central Station with a view of Central Park. What a wonderful experience and great memories they will have, despite the fact that Trista's luggage was lost and not returned to her until four days after they returned home!

View from their seats.

Jeremy got to witness Derek Jeter get his 1,269th hit in Yankee Stadium, tying Lou Gehrig's record. You can also see the marquis, where in the 3rd inning it said, "Welcome to Yankee Stadium, Jeremy & Trista Blevins." Of course, there was too much to take in and they missed seeing it!!!

On the subway.

The Chase Is On!

Saturday evening, after our glorious day in Edmond surrounded by beautiful and affluent city-dwellers...bankers, educators, accountants....you know....people who don't have to scrape manure off their boots before entering their back doors, we returned home to find our new homesteaders grazing peacefully in the deer plot. Our new strategy was to chase them down in the 4-wheeler Cadet and push them down the trail from whence they came. Sort of a modern-day, motorized cattle drive. We revved up the Cadet and Neal opened her up as we sped what seemed like 70 mph, straight for the bulls. The bulls were slow to catch on and Neal had to slam on the brakes to keep from running smack dab into the stationary bovines. They finally got the hint and high-tailed it West. I managed to snap a few photos as we bounced along the bumpy terrain, around the pond, through limbs smacking me in the face.

This is Mr. Blackbull

We call this one Red Bull
(does that mean he has more ENERGY?)

Stubborn fellas.

They finally headed down the trail, after trying to split up and outwit us several times. But this morning, we woke up to find them in the barn lean-to, Red Bull enjoying the salt lick, and Mr. Blackbull bedded down.

Dobson Field Dedication

We spent the day today at our Alma Mater, Oklahoma Christian, to be a part of the dedication of Dobson Field. Max Dobson was head baseball coach for many years at OC, including the years that Neal played baseball. You never know how many will attend this kind of event and Neal took several weeks to decide if he could pull himself away from work. But in the end, he decided to go, and we had an absolutely fabulous day. The new field is not completed, but the center stands were done and were filled to capacity. As you can see by the picture, there were plenty of old-timers there to play a scrimmage in the morning, and they managed to get through it without any pulled muscles, torn ligaments or stawberries. They fed us lunch, then we returned to the field for the dedication ceremonies. Afterwards, the 2008-2009 team played an inter-squad scrimmage. It was great to see so many old friends and we made that lame promise again that we wouldn't wait so long to get together again.

Alumni Players

In the Dugout

Neal and Max Dobson

Old Teammates

Bruce Talon, Tony Collier, Kris White, Norm Easter, Neal, Alan Hoffines

(Neal's the good-lookin' one.)

Friday Night is Out-to-Dinner Night

USUALLY, Friday night we go out to eat. But since we're trying to save money as well as watch waistlines, I cooked dinner again tonight. While at the table, Neal asked if I'd seen "the bull" today. I admitted that I hadn't really looked, but hadn't noticed any sign (if ya know what I mean). He mentioned putting his NEW (did I mention we're trying to save money?) deer feeder together and I advised him that it probably was a bad idea until we knew for sure Mr. Blackbull was gone for good. When we finished eating, we went out back to see if the deer were feeding and if they were being joined by Mr. Blackbull. Whoa, Nelly! Not only was HE back, but apparently he had brought his friends and family--seven in all. Neal has planted all sorts of good stuff for the deer to eat...rye, clover, chickory, etc. and I guess the bull thought it would be a nice treat for the herd, it being Friday night and all.