Killin' Days

Since Jesse is out of school for the summer, she has posted a few Paris pics at her blog.  They are worth the look. It is good to encourage her to continue posting now and then on her blog. I know I love to see her work there.

Speaking of art work, I wanted to paint something larger than what I usually paint, but something not complicated.  Fast, easy, and cheap - that is me.  So I did this beach chair. It seemed like a good summer scene.

The dogs were barking in the yard just now. When I looked up, there were at least three coyotes between the house and the pond - practically in the front yard. By the time I got my gun, they had moved off. I could see them further out, but not shootable. Dang it. Those pesky coyotes are a pain. I'd really like to shoot them, but what are the chances?

Speaking of dead animals, Toby put some mice killer-stuff under the house. Although the cat has killed some mice (coyotes kill the cats, so it is ok if I kill the coyotes) the one cat cannot keep up with the mice population. The new kitten is still too young to do much good. Ranger the Rat Terrier killed a mouse a few days ago - at a boy!  Apparently, Toby has killed some rodent under the house, 'cause the old part of the house now smells like dead animal. Nice. I have some good-smell'em stuff burning to hide the stench.  Dead animal/citrus is a nice combination. It is better than dead animal by itself. I wonder how the art girls will like the scent?

Well, I've got some other rat killin' to do. Have a good day.

No Hablo Espanol

It is raining this morning and that is a good thang for several reasons. First of all, we need the rain and lots of it. The pond is still down and the ground is still dry. Second, I don't have to go to exercise this morning. I can sit here at the computer and peruse and comment to my heart's content and drink another cup of coffee putting a little extra cream in it since Toby is at work. It is a great morning.

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that Jesse got her internship to Ecuador. Well, Toby and I along with Lindz and Shay made plans to go to Ecuador and meet up with Jes after her internship is over. We will have a week to explore Ecuador - mostly Quito. So, we have all been researching the area and deciding what all we want to see. Toby bought a cheap learn-to-speak-Spanish CD to brush us up on our Spanish skills (my brother is probably ROTFLOL). We have listened to three lessons and have not learned anything we did not already know. Still, it is good practice. Living in OK, we have not used our Spanish much. I bet my newly acquired American Sign Language is about as useful in Ecuador as it was in Paris. 

Last week at a little party with neighbors, I told this story: Not long after moving to OK from NM, Toby and I were driving down a country road. I noticed lots of garbage along the road and said, "Look! Someone has been dumping their trash in the arroyo!"  Toby said, "Lou, if we are going to live in OK, you have to learn to say gulley - not arroyo." 
Everyone at the party laughed at my story, and then said, "What is an arroyo?"

Since living here in OK, I have learned to say gulley, but it does not roll off the tongue and sound so beautiful as arroyo. I think I will go back to saying arroyo just for the heck of it. Maybe I will get out the Spanish book from our homeschooling and learn to tell "The Boy Who Cried Wolf." With my slow West Texas twang, it could be entertaining. For whatever backwards reason, I have often referred to a big rain as a "pour-down".  When I use this term, Toby shakes his head and says that I lived in NM too long.

Dad's Day

Lots of people were posting pics of their dad on FB today. I looked back at my posts here and picked a few. These are all fun pics of Dad, but then he was a fun guy, especially in the summers spent in Red River. Most photos of Dad are of him looking serious - he did have a great "look." Anyone who knew Dad knew how serious he could be, after all, he was a teacher/administrator. He once told me that I could not be a good teacher if I could not look "mean enough". He doubted I could be that mean. Little did he know.

Dad could also be very fun and laugh lots. My best memories of Dad are when he broke loose and laughed and was silly. So many times when we were building my house or working on someone's house, we would get so tickled together. He would laugh until he had tears in his eyes.  The last photo shows his big grin - much like mine, although Dad always looked cool.

I'll never forget the time Dad brought Toby home - they were both drunk as skunks. Dad was a bit less drunk than Toby, which was not saying much. Dad was laughing hard. I was not laughing. Toby could not stand up and he had bits of grass stuck to him where he had fallen. Dad thought the whole thang hilarious. It made me mad, which made Dad laugh even harder. At the time it was not funny to me, but looking back, it was very funny. I'm thankful for a dad who would drink with my husband and laugh and have a great time - making memories. I'm sure there are others out there that could tell similar stories about my Dad. He did like to have fun.

A few days ago was Dad's birthday. He would have been 85.  We always celebrated Dad's birthday in RR. Those were the best of times.

Birthday Bo

I was up early this morning as I was 34 years ago when I gave birth to my son, Bo. Toby and I were just babies ourselves - still in college. Sometimes I feel like we grew up with Bo. We were the first of our friends to have a baby - no one else had children. Maybe it is why Bo was always such a little man - he spent all his play time with grown-ups.
This is Toby and "Uncle" Stevie at the hospital on the morning Bo was born. Toby- the proud papa! Steve had stayed up all night in the waiting room - waiting - he was a good uncle back then. About a week later, Stevie was at the house when Bo had a major blow-out of the messy diaper sort. Stuff went all over me and Bo and the pillow he was on. "Help me, Stevie!" I cried! He backed out the door refusing to help saying he did not do diapers. I told him that I would never forgive him if he left me with that mess. He told me he was okay with that, and out the door he went. His loss. 
This Bo at about six months - the same age as Titus now. This is Bo at about a 18 months with a mop of blond hair. And here's a photo taken last year on his birthday. 
This one is just a favorite.

Where Have I Been

It was a busy weekend. On Thursday afternoon, I drove to WF and spent the night with Mom so that we could get up at the crack of dawn and head to Amarillo for my niece's graduation luncheon and that night for her commencement exercise. Here is a picture of me and my niece when she was about a year old.

Here we are 18 years later. Since my picture of us was a bit dark, you can see how beautiful she is here with her mother (my baby sister).  

The graduation ceremony was very nice, but a bit long. It was after 10 PM before we got to the party -  after the ceremony. It was also about that time that Amarillo got a big thunderstorm. It was after 11 before Mom and I headed back to the hotel. We had a bit of a fight on the way back to the hotel over her giving me driving instructions (we fight about this often). I told Mom that she was being an "Aunt Mildred" by telling me how to drive and where to turn, etc. Yep, it made her mad. When we got to the hotel, I drove to the back door (closest to the elevator and room) and gave Mom the key. I told her she needed the key to get in the door and I would park and be right in. She hopped out of the car with the umbrella and the key while I waited and then I parked a few spaces down. By the time I got to the back door of the hotel, Mom was long gone. I stood there in the rain looking in the back door thinking, "Really?!"  I wondered if she were mad enough to do this on purpose. I also thought that maybe she had misunderstood and thought I was going to park around front and come in the main doors. And really, what else could I do at that point. I certainly could not get in the back door.  So, I drove around to find that there were no parking spots in front of the hotel. I had to park on the side of the building and run down the sidewalk in the rain to the front doors. When I got in and was headed to the room, I ran into Mom. She said, "I locked you out." like I didn't already know that. "Yep, you did." was about all I could say at that point. The term "mad as a wet hen" fit me perfectly.  Then Mom said, "Well, I went back down, but you weren't there." as if it were all my fault. I still couldn't talk. Had she expect me to stand outside in the rain and hope that she came back to let me in? By the time we got back to the room, I was a bit better. And by the next morning we were able to laugh about it. That was not our only adventure, but it was the best one -  worth sharing. 

Now it is back to WF today to take Mom to a doctor appointment. Hopefully I can catch up on my blog reading soon. 

Summer Art

This is a pastel of GBN1. The photo was taken years ago with the sun setting casting an orange glow to her.  Her hair was so blonde and her eyes were blue. She was about the cutest thang around. This painting is still clipped to my drawing board in case it needs more work. I'm at the "let it set for a few days" stage. With just posting it on the blog, I've already seen some things that need work.Here is a watercolor that I did yesterday. This is from a photo of Toby and GBN2. I've always loved the light on them. I did not capture the look on GBN2's face, but then that was not really my purpose.