Mini Vacation

Jesse has a few days of vacation that she needs to use or lose. So we planned a little trip to use up her vacation. We leave in the morning. With Lindz now married and living in The City, Jes has been a bit down at times. The other day while shopping, Jes was looking for a birthday present for Shay (Lindz' husband). Jes was discussing what she should get him. Then under her breath I heard her say, "I already gave him my best friend." She is not the only one; Lindz’ Aunt B told me that she was going through withdrawals herself. When Lindz is here, she is surrounded by her friends and family. Jesse is spending one day of her vacation with Lindz so that she can have her all to herself. Then I get Jes all to myself. I feel sorry for Jes when she is so lonely, but I sure don’t mind getting to spend more time with her. Last year when we drove to Corpus Christi together, I had a blast. I think this will be even better. We have a basic plan for our mini-vacation, but we have room to "wing it." I will let our destination be a surprise. I will take my laptop and camera and blog from our destination. I will leave you with a hint: We are headed south (warmer climate) and we are looking forward to eating lots of Mexican food. By the way, did anyone see the Alamo Bowl last night?

Catching Up in Busy Times

My day with Mom went well. We had lunch with her friends at Cheddar’s, which was good. I tried to take a picture of Mom and the ladies, but I had trouble giving them instruction. "Lean in" seemed to be beyond comprehension. Since these ladies are all old enough to be my mother and one is my mother, I hated to keep giving orders. I finally gave up and took the picture. I tried to get another one of just Mom. She usually gives this fake smile, which is sometimes more like a grimace. So I tried to catch her a bit unaware before she had too much time to paste the smile on. Unfortunately, in the photo the guy in the background is picking his nose. I gave up on my picture taking. I was surprised that my computer let me upload a photo, but it only let me do one - sigh! I should have mentioned that my mom is on the far right.

Movie Review:
I noticed this morning that the movie, "Marley and Me" was number one at the box office this weekend. The reporters made a big to-do over Jennifer Aniston’s movie doing better than Brad Pitt’s movie. Who cares! But I did happen to see "Marley and Me" on Saturday. I debated on giving my thoughts – not wanting to spoil the movie for anyone who wants to see it, but what the heck! I was totally taken by surprise thinking the movie to be just another silly, fun movie about a dog – after all, it has Owen Wilson and Jennifer A in it. How serious could it be? For the most part, it is about the Marley and his antics, but it is more. It is about life and the choices we make. I liked the movie. I especially liked Alan Arkin’s role as the editor of the newspaper. The part that took me by surprise was the ending. I have never cried so hard in a movie in my life – not even when John Wayne was killed in "The Shootist." I went to see "M & M" with some of my girl friends. I found myself sunk low in my chair trying not to hup or sniff or snort too loud, but the tears just flowed unchecked down my cheeks. I pulled my shirt up to wipe the tears hoping no one knew I was bawling like a baby. Soon I realized my friends were in bad shape too, but I still tried not to just wail. After the movie, my friend Beverly started telling about how her cat, which had grown up with her kids, had died and how devastated everyone was. Then Lindsay told about her golden retriever, Boomer. We were all crying. It was too much for me and I went home. Today, Mom told me that the grandkids had gone to see "M & M." "You’re kidding! That was not for kids!" She agreed and said that the kids had all come home with wet sleeves from crying. Great! I think people should be warned.

Another Review:
Jesse has Christmas pics up on her blog.

Birthday Lunch

Today is my mom’s 77th birthday. I am headed to WF to have lunch with Mom and her friends. Maybe I will post more later. Tis the season...

More Christmas Tradition

Toby and I stayed up the other night past our usual ten o’clock bedtime, because Toby was baking bread. You heard me right. I won’t explain the bread thang right now, but I will say that he was on Toby-time – running late. While we waited for the bread to rise and then for it to bake, we watched "White Christmas." It has been a while since I sat and watched the whole movie. Bing Crosby is good, but I love Danny Kaye. Watching that movie reminded me of the first time I remember seeing the movie. I was nine years old and living in RR. The Clines had asked me to baby-sit their two-year-old while they went out on the town. My mother was horrified that they would want a nine-year-old to baby-sit, but they said they would rather have me than any teen-ager in town. So, the toddler and I sat and watched "White Christmas" on TV. It became a bit of a tradition. I babysat for the Clines at the old Siesta Motel quite often after that. The next year they had a new baby girl. Mom was really worried about me taking care of a newborn baby, but Martha and Ziggy were not worried in the least. Mom told me that I was not to "pick up" the new baby under any circumstances. So when the baby started crying, I called Mom, who came to change the baby and put her back to bed while the toddler and I continued to play and watch TV. Both of those girls are now married with babies of their own.

Another great Christmas tradition that I had forgotten about was guns. Yep, toy guns with a big shoot-em-up is great fun on Christmas morning and a big tradition in our family. This year, Mom had bought all the grandkids a toy gun with foam darts. Any kind of gun that shoots disks or darts has been great. The year that we had marshmallow guns was lots of fun. Those guns were made out of small PVC pipe and you would load small marshmallows into the pipe and then blow through a mouthpiece. They would shoot a marshmallow across the room. Of course the gun barrel became wet with spit, and the marshmallows became a bit sticky, which was funny. It was not so funny when months later, Mom was still finding marshmallows in her house.

When we walked into Mom’s house yesterday, we were blasted with darts and disks and memories. It was a vicious attack, as we were unarmed. The grandkids were running and squealing and ducking and shooting. Mom was offering breakfast as if nothing wild was going on. We had Jan with us. He sat down to breakfast and Mom handed him a gun. He was like Dirty Harry – eating while calmly shooting Jesse’s cousins whom he didn’t even know. The shooting never slowed down while we were there. Bo and Sara showed up with the GGs. Bo joined the shoot-em-up. Sara gave him the "Bo, if you shoot me, you are in big trouble!" He shot her anyway – it was a challenge he couldn’t resist. GBN1 eventually got a gun and joined in. She was not a good shot, but she laughed so hard every time she shot a gun, that everyone got tickled too. No matter the age, the grandkids had blast (pun intended) with those guns.

One year Nickie joined us on Christmas morning. Nickie was a Black kid whom my dad had fostered from elementary school through high school. Nickie was 6’6" and was a Michael Jordan look-a-like. He played football at ASU for a while. He joined in the big shoot-em-up that Christmas and was wild. At 6’6" it was hard to ignore Nickie when he was under the dining room table shooting the cousins.

Years ago when the kids were younger and we lived in RR, we went over to the Donnithorne’s for Christmas dinner. Although we were best friends with the Donnithornes, we had not met their relatives that were also there for Christmas. Of course we had bought the usual Christmas guns – these shot disks. We made our plan of attack. We hid our guns inside our coats. When we walked into the D’s house, we were being introduced to family and such. Toby gave the word, and we pulled out our guns and opened fire. We sent the Donnithornes squealing and scattering. Our friends loved it! I don’t know what their relatives thought. Of course we had extra guns and passed them out. The shoot-em-up was on!

Jesse took her camera this Christmas. Maybe she will post photos or let me steal some photos to post later.

Christmas Spirit Again

My Christmas spirit comes and goes. Yesterday it "went" several times, but was restored. I had a few errands to run in town yesterday and was going to do some "un-rushed" shopping. The temperature here in OK did not get above 30, but that did not bother me. I just bundled up – it reminded me of my days in NM. In fact, I kind of like the cool air on my face when the rest of me is warm. There was a moment in a public restroom when I had to peel off all my warm layers, and then put them right back on, which was a hassle, but it was another reminder of my skiing days in NM. At least I was not wearing stretchy ski pants, which in a small restroom stall can bedevil a contortionist.

My first errand was to drop off the last of my belated Christmas cards at the post office. I just wanted to drive through and poke my mail in the box. I had followed a slow moving truck for several blocks, but that was not a problem. The problem came when we got to the front of the post office. The Duncan post office was busier than usual and most of the parking spots were full. But people are constantly coming and going, so it is not usually a problem. Most people who cannot find a parking spot, just swing around (the street is very wide and accommodating) and park on the opposite side of the street. The person in the truck just came to a complete stop in the middle of the street to wait on a parking spot. I hate when people do this in a parking lot much less in the middle of the street. There was plenty of parking spots – just not directly in front of the PO. Gee, you would think taking a few extra steps would be a hardship, and if it is that difficult, get a handicapped sticker. The truck in front of me sat there making it impossible to go around, but waiting on the "perfect" parking spot. Gee, could they not circle the block. Cars were lining up behind me, but then they started turning off and going another way or parking further away from the front door of the PO. I just wanted to drive around to the far side of the PO and drop my one letter off, but the "Oblivian" in front of me made me a bit crazed.

I got over my mad fairly quickly by going to the office where my son works. The GGs were about to make an appearance there – so I waited on them. GBN1 came sneaking in to surprise her daddy, but she was surprised when she rounded the corner and saw me. She ran and jumped catching me around the waist with her arms and wrapping her legs around my legs. She just hung there hugging me. Ahhh, Christmas spirit restored!

After visiting with the GGs for a while, I met Toby and Jesse for lunch – very pleasant. Then I went to Wal-Mart. I know: what was I thinking? You are probably already shaking your head. It really wasn’t so bad. There were more people in Wal-Mart than actually live in Duncan. Where do these people come from? I ran into so many people whom I knew, it was impossible to get my shopping done quickly. I laughed when one friend asked me if I had to park at the library and walk to Wal-Mart. Truthfully, the people and the parking did not bother me. I was ready and willing to deal with the hassle. But there seems to be something at Wal-Mart that makes a person lose their mind. The minute you walk through the doors, your mind goes blank. You wonder around the store forgetting your purpose. You have to cross the store several times because they put some baking things on the grocery side of the store, but not throw-away pie plates. You must go to the kitchen aisle on the other side of the store for that. I lost track of time. Even my list did not make sense anymore. I lost my purpose. I bought a Diet Pepsi on my way out hoping that I would be restored to normalcy. I did have this thought as I drove out of the parking lot: why do we need to torture detainees at Guantanamo? We should just line up the detainees and run them through the front doors at a Wal-Mart. Their minds would be erased. They would lose their purpose. All would be well. Either that or they would go home and blow themselves up.

When I got home, Jesse had bought cheap tie-dye kits for us to tie-dye socks for silly Christmas presents for the cousins. The kits came with dye, rubber bands, and gloves. The gloves were cheap and useless. Our fingers are now dyed making it look like we have recently been fingerprinted. We made some ugly socks, and had a great time. It may be our new Christmas tradition.

Jesse Story: Jesse said, "I’m going to make origami socks." She pronounced it more like "aragami." I thought, "Hmm, how is she going to make her designs look like folded animals?" She began making intricate, colorful, diamond shapes on the socks. It made me laugh – she meant "argyle" socks.

Christmas Cookies

Now I have gone over the top with Christmas spirit. Last night I baked bizcochitos – yum! If I could make tamales, I probably would. Instead, I called my brother in Austin, and put in my order for some good tamales to eat on Christmas Eve. Yep, it is not about the decorations for me; it is about the food.

For those of you who don’t know, bizcochitos are a bread cookie with anise seed. They can be decorated with colorful sprinkles, but usually they are just sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. The recipe I use calls for a pound of butter and six cups of flour. I did not have any brandy to put in my batch; so I used rum. I use a cookie press, which is just easier than rolling and cutting when you have so much dough. They are melt-in-your-mouth delicious, and they bring back special memories.

When we lived in McAllen, some teachers and I were throwing a baby shower for a coworker. The other teachers sent me to a local bakery to pick up several dozen pan de polvo cookies. It was my introduction to the Mexican shortbread cookie. I had to go back and buy another dozen cookies, because I ate so many of them before getting them to the baby shower. They just melted in my mouth - I was hooked.

Years later in New Mexico, I discovered the bizcochito which is similar to the pan de polvo cookie. I found an old recipe book with northern NM recipes and started making cookies. They became Bo’s favorite cookies. Last night while I was baking the cookies, GBN1 called on the phone to tell me about her weekend. When I told her that I was making bizcochitos, she knew immediately how special that was. She also informed me that she already had some bizcochitos. She also has a new Tinkerbell coloring book, which she asked if she could bring to my house and spend the night.

One time, while living in NM, some friends and I got together to bake bizcochitos. I’m sure it was for some special occasion, but I cannot remember our purpose. I do remember the fun and the fellowship. My friend lived in an earthship house – completely off the grid. We used her kitchen to make the cookies. We used her fancy mixer to mix the ingredients. Her husband called the fancy mixer "a watt-sucker." I had never thought about how much watts it took to bake cookies, but when you only have solar power, it becomes more important. It gave me a different outlook on things. To this day I cannot get my mixer out without thinking of my old friend in her funky house. Another friend that helped us that day was Susie. Susie was from Massachusetts and new to the bizcochito tradition. She always had such wide-eyed wonder at the world and was a wonderful friend. I have written about Susie our friendship in a past blog.

Yep, it is definitely about the food and friendships.

Shopping with The Girl

Yesterday afternoon, Jesse, Toby, and I went to Lawton to do some shopping. After making the usual stop at Hobby Lobby ('cause if I don’t write a check there at least once a week, they call and ask about me) we went to Starbucks for some special coffee. Then we moved on to the mall because Toby needed something at Sears, and Jesse and I still needed some Christmas presents for the cousins. Of course at Sears, we all made a beeline for the bathrooms (Starbucks does that). Upon entering the ladies restroom Jesse and I were met with a long line of ladies already waiting and a foul odor to which Jesse hollered, "Shoowee!" Being a mom, I replied, "Good grief, Jesse! I can’t take you anywhere!" Being a smart-a, Jesse said, "Come on! You know everyone was thinking it!" Giggles erupted down the line of ladies.

Christmas Decor

Jesse made fun of me, which is not unusual. This time she teased me and she told her friends that I had put a bow on the mailbox and that was the extent of my Christmas decorations. When she comes in from work, she usually does her Desi Arnaz impression, "Lucy, I’m home," but she this time added, "I see you have been decorating!"

Okay, I admit that I am not a big decorating person. I have not put a tree up or done any Christmas decorating since we moved into this house (three years or so). I have my reasons. First of all, this house is just so small. I hate to add to the cluster with a bunch of decorations. Second, I don’t really think all of decorations and to-do is necessary. I was freed from that stress a long time ago. If I choose, if I feel like it, I will put out decorations. If I feel stressed, I will not bother. When the kids were little, we always did a big tree with special ornaments. We would climb all over the Rocky Mountains looking for just the right tree, cut it down, and drag it home. That made for some special Christmas traditions. As I have mentioned in past years, Christmas in Red River with the snow, family and friends was just a wonderful special time. But after we opened gifts on Christmas morning, we usually hit the mountain for some skiing, and we went to work. Then the season was just too busy for much Christmas activities or sentiment. As a teenager, I often spent the holidays away from Mom and Dad, because I went to RR to work. Christmas could be special or it could be nothing. Maybe that set the stage for my Christmas attitude today.

Don’t get me wrong; I love the season and the parties and the family and the fun, but I hate the stress. And stress has become a big part of the Christmas season. For some reason people feel obligated to do lots of decorating, spend lots of money, buy gifts for people they don’t care about, etc. Why? Is it the "if you are a Christian, you must do this…" syndrome? Are we worried about what others think of us? There are those people who only go to church once or twice a year – Christmas and Easter. Do they think God is pleased with that? Do they even know what is pleasing to the Lord? For some reason, I really doubt God is pleased with people overspending their budget to buy useless things. I doubt He cares about Santa and the reindeer or how big your tree is or any other of the pagan things mixed up with the Christian religion. Do I think Christmas trees and Santa are bad things? Nope, they don’t bother me. They are just fun things. Like the Easter bunny and egg hunts, it is just a fun tradition. Are these things that God demands from us as His followers? Nope. Do these things distract us from real worship? Maybe so, but that is something each of you have to check your own heart about. So I don’t always do a big Christmas with lots of decorating and gifts. I don’t stress over it anymore. I truly believe it is not important to hold this one day of the year as more holy than any other. I think it is more important to live every day as a celebration that God sent His Son to live, and die, and live again for me.

Since Jesse has been feeling a bit melancholy since Lindz’ wedding, I thought she might appreciate some things from her past – some festive décor. Yesterday, I broke out the little tree from storage and put it up in the living room. I dragged out the box of ornaments and decorations. It was quite fun to un-wrap the ceramic ornaments that I painted the first year Toby and I were married. Then there were the ornaments from the different places we have lived and the ones people gave us over the years. It was fun to dig out the ornaments that the kids had made when they were little. I did enjoy putting up the tree. And I do like looking at it. It is good memories.

Also, Toby and I set down and made some cards to send. I was not going to bother with the Christmas cards this year, but what was I going to do with all those little paintings that I had done throughout the year? They won’t arrive before Christmas. But that is okay, because to me, they are more a celebration of friendship – a gift of love – and that can be expressed any day of the year.

PS, if you don't get a card and you want one, I probably do not have your snail mail. Just drop me an email with your snail mail, and I will try and get you a card.

Christmas Dinner

Last night we had a potluck supper at our church. I always love those sorts of things – good food, good fellowship. One of my favorite Christmas traditions was the potluck supper for the whole town of Red River.


Yep, the whole town turns out at the Community House. People come out of the woodwork for this event. People whom you haven’t seen all year will turn out. Everyone brings food and the Women’s Club provides ham. For serving tables, sheets of plywood are set on sawhorses. Picture two sets tables that are 4’x 8’ lined up end to end down one side of the building with food piled high. The rest of the large building is filled with tables and chairs for people to eat at. The tables are decorated with homemade Christmas centerpieces made by the Women’s Club. Every inch of space is used for seating. The back of the building is smaller and is used for a stage area where the school kids put on a Christmas program. Santa makes his entrance and a photographer is on hand to take pictures. All of this takes place a couple of weeks before Christmas, because RR is a resort town. The minute public schools let out, the town will be filled with tourist for the beginning of the ski season. Everyone is then too busy to do much socializing after the season kicks off. But for that one night, everyone comes together for food and fun.

I have some great memories of those gatherings and thought I would share a few. My earliest memory of the Christmas dinner in RR is about 1969. It was held at the ski area lodge rather than the Community House - probably because the CH did not have winterized bathrooms back then. I remember playing outside while moms decorated the inside. We kids were supposed to be rehearsing for the Christmas play. I was playing outside on the bunny slope, when I slipped and fell hitting my face. I don’t remember the play or the food or the gathering, but I do remember playing with the other town kids – especially the Waltz kids who were all knew to the town.
My next memories of the Christmas supper were years later when Toby and I moved back to RR in 1986. Bo was in the Christmas play, and he always took it very seriously, but Jesse was not in school yet. The next year when she was five, she played the part of Mary. Basically her part was to stand there next to another kindergartner playing the part of Joseph and look cute while the other kids sang songs and told the story of Jesus’ birth. At some point she picked up a piece of straw from the crib and started "directing" the choir. Joseph reached over and pushed her arm down letting her know that she was not suppose to be playing with the straw. Jesse then poked the kid in the face with the straw letting him know that he better not mess with her. I can remember thinking, "Oh my gosh! She is going to fight." But Joseph backed down - smart boy. We do have it on tape.

Then there was the year that I made several trays of enchiladas for the supper. As I was unloading the car, Jack Griffith asked if he could help by carrying something for me. I thought he was being very nice and gave him a tray of enchiladas. When I got inside, several people where oohing and awing over the enchiladas that Jack had made. He was standing there with a big grin taking credit for the enchiladas. Smart man!

Red River can be very much like one big family – they may fuss and fight, but they do come together in times of crisis and times of fun.

Slippery Steps

I slid out the back door yesterday – literally. I took one step, and was on the steps sliding down before I knew what was happening. It was similar to sliding into home plate, but much more painful. I had a flower vase in my hand, which I did have the sense to throw far away from me before I broke it on the cement steps. The steps were so slick with an invisible layer of ice that I slid all the way to the ground before I came to a complete stop. It is times like that when you are not sure if you want to laugh or cry. Since no one witnessed my fall, I just picked myself up, dusted off the dirt, and made my way around to the front door rather than attempting the back steps again. Although the front door was locked, I found a key in my car. There was no way I was going to crawl up those back steps. I was suppose to be cleaning the house since a friend was coming over to get me to cut a mat for her. She arrived soon after the slide/fall, but did not give much sympathy. My art students came an hour or so later, and they did not give too much sympathy either. When Toby got home, he offered more sympathy; of course, he knows which side of his bread is buttered. Is that the right saying?

I did not post yesterday, although I started to tell you about the very nice meal we had at two of Jesse’s coworkers’ house. It was the house that I was most impressed with (the boys did put on a great meal). One of the coworkers had bought a brand new house to live in while he works for Halliburton. The other young man was rooming with him probably to help with house payments. I guess I was expecting the usual bachelor apartment, but it was a super nice house. He said his girlfriend had done the décor and the furniture was hand-me-down, but wow, it was very nice. Sometimes I forget that I do not live like a normal person – whatever "normal" is. Our house is small, not finished, and well, a bit different. Jesse and Toby and I laughed all the way home after supper – teasing each other about our single bathroom, the lack of closets, carpet, and such. I hope we didn’t seem to awe-struck while looking through the bachelor house. I am sure we looked like Okie hicks. So we beat their socks off in a game of Trivial Pursuit to show that we were not really as stupid as we seemed.

We are planning on building on to our little house, although it is very comfy and suits us well enough. But when I saw the very nice house that two bachelors live in, I was reminded that most people would think that house was normal, and that my house was "abby normal." Sometimes Toby and I think it would all just be easier to buy a nice house in town and live like other people. I cringe at the thought of neighbors so close and making-do with a house designed by someone else. No, I can wait for my dream house. It may be more like something someone from NM would live in, but it will be exactly what I have always wanted. It will be similar to my house in Questa with big open areas, high ceilings, Mexican tile, etc. It will be worth the wait.

I was able to add this photo today - who knows why! It is of the GGs and Toby feeding the horses.

The Sleep Over

Although my son has a Masters degree in economics, he has been taking accounting classes so that he has a more useful degree – there is just not a big demand around here for economic majors. He finished the semester on Thursday and took his beautiful wife out on a date Friday night while we kept the GGs. The girls were quite excited about spending the night with Booboo and Crewcraw. Toby picked the GGs up after work and brought them home with him. We fed chickens and horses to the delight of the girls. For the first time, we set GBN2 on Goldie, her daddie’s old roping horse. GBN2 did this wonderful little chuckle when we put her on the horse. I took several pictures and will try to post them somehow. After supper, we watched a movie. Then the party started.

I’m not sure what happens when you put three girls in one bed, but the giggle boxes turn on. Jesse had bailed on us and gone to spend the night with Reagan. So I put the GGs in Jesse’s bed. I ended up joining them because GBN2 had never slept in a big bed (only her crib). Both girls were thrilled to be in Jesse’s bed with Booboo. GBN1 erupted into giggles when I said that GBN2 was a bed hog and needed to scoot over. Little feet and elbows were everywhere. GBN2 kept raising up and saying something, but I could not understand her.
Me: I don’t know what she is saying.
GBN1: I shink she said, ‘Cat poop.’
Me (erupting in giggles): I don’t think she said "cat poop."
GBN1: I shink so!
Later when I told their mother about the conversation, she said that GBN2 said something about her "crib" but that it sounds a lot like "cat poop."

That was the beginning of the night. It took a while for the girls to wind down and fall asleep. When they finally did, they became like puddles of butter, melting all over the bed. Since there was little room for me, I moved back into my own bed with Toby. About 2 AM, GBN1 woke up crying that her legs hurt. I moved back in to Jesse's bed to rub her legs. Of course she woke up GBN2. Then Zoe, the Great Dane, came in to see what the commotion was. It was like a circus in Jesse’s room. At that point, we separated the girls and sent GBN1 to sleep with Crewcraw while I slept with GBN2. For over 30 minutes I could hear GBN1 chattering away rather than sleeping. It kept both GBN2 and I awake. When GBN1 got quiet, it was another 30 minutes before GBN2 quit flopping like a fish. It was a long night.

After a breakfast of "chicken eggs" and bacon, we took the girls home, which was not to their liking, but had to be done. Toby and I did some Christmas shopping. Later that evening, I took Toby to a "silent dinner" put on by my American Sign Language class. Several families from the deaf community attended and were very interesting to communicate with. I have a long way to go in learning sign language. Each class performed a song in sign, but the real treat came when our teacher (who is deaf) performed a song. It was the most beautiful, graceful, moving Christmas carol I have ever seen. I want to be able to "sing" like that someday!

Dancing Queens Again

You are not going to believe this, but last night Jesse and I went line dancing. How does that grab you – like a hairy hand in the dark? Last week the Junk Diva told me that she and some ladies had heard about the line dancing class and were going, but I could not make it last week. They reported that it was great fun and good exercise. Last night I was just settling down in my recliner after a small dinner of etouffee, when Jesse called and reminded me of the dance class. I had just mentioned to Toby that since we had not been riding our bikes, I really needed to be doing some sort of exercise. Hot Diggity Dog – dance class might just be the answer! And so I met Jes at the class.

We got to the class a few minutes late, and the room was filled with long lines of ladies – quite a few were from my church along with their daughters. My buddies squealed and hollered when Jes and I arrived – what fun! The lady teaching the class was about my age. She taught line dancing very well and had a great, friendly personality. We danced from 6:30 to 8:30 – my legs were aching. We did lots of country-type dances and then did some hip-hop type dances. Yeah, I kept up. I probably did not look as good as Jesse, but danced pretty well for an old lady.

Duncan has a place called the Simmons Center, which is a very nice community gym/spa type place. The SC has several gyms, racquetball gyms, weight machines, aerobics classes, and swimming pool (GBN1 appropriately calls it the Swimmons Center). A few years ago, I joined the SC and went to step class. It was a very nice place, but the people were very much like being part of the Country Club. They just seemed to have more than their share of whiny rich people and anal-retentive SC workers. So I quit the SC. Then a few months later, Jesse and lots of her buddies joined. Ashley is now teaching step class. I have been considering joining again, but I hate the Country Club attitude.

Now last night, I had a great time dancing with the common folk – the hair dressers and moms and fat old ladies – laughing and hooting and teasing each other when they had never even met before. It was really a fun time. Too bad the art guild meets on Thursday nights – that might put a kink in my dancing days.

Yes - No - No - Why

A few weeks ago, I installed Picasa hoping to be able to post photos from there since I have been having such trouble uploading photos. Thinking that maybe Picasa took up too much space, I un-installed it this morning. Then I immediately tried to upload a photo and chose this one of Jesse as it is close to the top of the photos on My Pictures. Yes - it worked. So I tried again choosing another photo. No - it did not work. I chose another photo. No - it did not work either. Why?

This is eating my lunch...

I appreciate everyone's concern on my upload problem. I did speak with Hughes.net yesterday. They did not call me, but I did call them. Some woman with a strong accent from India walked me through the same tests as the man did on Monday. She tried a few more things like having me connect the modem (?) directly into a computer rather than into the wireless network thang. I had to use Jesse's new laptop since it is in the room with the modem. Not being familiar with Jesse's computer was a bit wild. Having to start up a different computer while on the phone was slow. I was probably on the phone for about an hour. The lady had me restart up the computer in "safe mode" or whatever. It still did not work. The lady kept asking me, "Does your computer seem faster now?" When I told her that the computer was about like it always is in the afternoon - that it is faster in the mornings, she explained that happens due to heavier use in the afternoons. Duh! I have known that for a couple of years - since I have had Hughes.net. I explained that although speed could be a problem, it was not the problem I was having now. I explained about the inability to upload photos to my blog no matter the time of day. I explained that I couldn’t upload photos from any computer in this house. I explained that my daughter can upload photos at her office, but not at home. Jesse has a brand new Dell laptop and cannot upload photos to her blog - not my blog - her blog either. We get the same message: Web Acceleration Client Error (506) - Suspected Recent Satellite Link Outage The satellite link was operating properly up until the most recent web page request, but the last request could not be successfully sent across the satellite link to the Web Acceleration Server. Possible causes for this include recent changes in weather conditions or equipment problems in the Network Operations Center. Trying again at a later time may result in restored service due to either improvements in the weather conditions causing the service outage or rectification of a network problem in the Network Operations Center. If this problem persists, please contact your service provider for additional assistance.

If this is a problem with blogger and my blog, why is it affecting Jesse's blog too? Why can she post photos from work, but not home? Why is it the same with all three computers here at home? I guess if it is a problem with blogger or our individual computers, we must all have the same problem. Jesse does have a different firewall/protection. I have different protection on my laptop. I just don’t think it is a problem with lack of space. Something is messing with our server - that has to be the problem. Now what? I will probably call Hughes again today.

Friends and Funnies

It turned cold and nasty yesterday with the wind howling from the north dropping temps below 30. It was quite a change from the 70’s on Monday with winds howling from the south. I don’t mind the cold; I just hate the wind.

I will attempt to post a photo again today, but I won’t hold my breath. I already tried posting from my laptop, and that did not work. Hughes.net is suppose to call me today, but I won’t hold my breath for that either. I asked Jes when Shay and Lindsay, who are both computer techs, would be back from their honeymoon in Hawaii. Yep, I’m getting desperate. I may even give the computer doctor a call. I did run a scan on my computer and got rid of some cookies. I tried turning off my firewall – to no avail. But if we cannot post a photo from any computer here at the house, it would seem that the problem is with the server and only the server should be able to fix it. It seems a might strange.

On Pearl Harbor Day, Toby and I were chatting in our recliners and drinking coffee. Toby said, "Today is Dave and Karly’s wedding anniversary." Now that was a blast from the past. Karly and Dave were friends from Red River. Dave worked for Bear as a contract painter, and Karly was Toby’s secretary at Sanco. I loved Karly, who was always upbeat and fun. She worked well with Toby and made his life easier at work. When she quit work to raise her family, Toby went through some different secretaries – none of whom could hold a candle to Karly. Anyway, I told Toby to Google them and sure enough he came up with a way to contact them. We heard back from Dave and he attached a picture of his family - including their four beautiful children. Since Dave worked for Bear back in the old days, we have lots of "Dave stories," but my favorite is this: When Dave (who is a bit younger than us) was about to marry Karly, he asked Bear if after all these years of being married, did he still think that his wife was hot. Bear assured Dave that he still found Anny hot and that Dave would feel the same way about Karly in years to come. Well, after seeing their family photo, my first thought was, "Wow, Karly is still hot!"

Since Karly worked for Toby, we have some Karly stories too: Sanco was a trash company. All of the drivers had radios in their trucks as well as one in the office. Toby and I also had radios in each of our vehicles. Each driver had a call number. Toby was 22. Karly was always in the office, so she was just "base." Then one day, Toby got new radios that were suppose to work better (all of this was before cell phones and keep in mind this was in the mountains where nothing works well). We were driving in a remote area near Roy, NM, when Toby decided to test the new radios. "22 to base – come in base." Nothing. "22 to base, can you hear me?" Nothing. Then we heard from one of the other drivers, "This is 16, and I am in Springer and can hear you fine." We heard from other drivers as well, but not the base office. A few minutes later when all was silent we heard, "22 this is base. I can hear you fine. In fact, these new radios work so well that I can hear you all the way in the bathroom."

Just another little bit of funny: Whenever Toby called me on the radio he said, "22 to Lou," because I had no call number. Eventually, my call sign became "toodle-loo."

Maybe This Will Work...

Blogger has become so frustrating for me. Once again, I have spent all morning on trying to post photos. I'm trying this from picasa. These are the photos that go with yesterday's post. The first is of my Christmas dishes and pie. Then there are photos taken by Jesse of the Chicken Round Up. Notice the chicken condo in the photo with Toby.

For those of you who love "Father of the Bride" - Last night while watching Monday Night Football, I asked Toby if the other Barber twin had "resigned".
Toby: Retired.
Me: Recoiled.
Jesse: Relented.
Toby finished with: Ricola!

The Great Escape

I have worked all morning and yesterday evening trying to get photos uploaded with the following post. I have called Hughes.net since they did not answer my email last week. I spoke with a man from New Delhi. He eventually had me try my browsing, which worked fine. When I tried to upload a photo, I got the same error message. The tech support is sending my request to "advance support" who will call me within two business days. The moral of this story is that you get no photos with the post.

Friday night Toby and I watched "The Great Escape" which I had bought for five dollars – what a deal! We even stayed up and watched the documentary on the making of the movie including the famous motorcycle jump. Saturday morning we had our own great escape. Three of Toby’s chickens had escaped their chicken coop. Of course after watching "The Great Escape" we were reminded of the animated movie, "Chicken Run." If you have never seen it, it is lots of fun and has some very funny bits taken from "The Great Escape" – in one scene, the rooster (voice by Mel Gibson) gets thrown into the cooler where he begins bouncing a baseball. One of my favorite parts is when the farmer comes in and tells his wife, "The chickens are revolting." She agrees because she has never liked the chickens. Of course he meant that the chickens were rebelling and breaking out. My kind of humor!

It was time for the chicken round up. Herding chickens is about like herding cats – neither of which is easy. First thing was to put the dogs in the house except for Rita the cow chicken dog. She is pretty good at herding other animals and stalking birds without causing them to fly. Unfortunately, she doesn’t always push them the way you want them to go. Zoe the Great Dane just wants to chase the chickens and Ranger the Rat Terrier is no help at all. Zoe and Ranger were put in the house. Then Jesse came out to help, and let Zoe out. We had to stop the chicken round up for a few minutes while we had the Dane round up. Jesse brought her camera out and took photos. Toby told her she was not being very helpful, but she was very funny. Maybe it was Toby and I that were funny. How can things not be funny when two grown people are chasing three wild chickens? We finally got them caught and put back in the "chicken condo. Toby did some mending of the wire. Then we headed off to town to pick up the GGs and go to the annual BSA pancake breakfast.

It kind of all reminded me of the time when I was seven months pregnant with Jesse, Bo was not quite three years old, and the pigs that we were raising escaped their pen. I called Toby at work, but we lived 12 miles out of town. Toby told me to keep the pigs off the highway until he got there – yeah right! When he got there, we put Bo up on the propane tank out of the way and told him to stay. He did. He had the best seat in the house for the pig rodeo. We caught one pig in the chicken yard fairly easily. But Toby had to rope the sow and try to drag her back to her pen. You try roping a two hundred-pound hog. It was wild. Bo was so cute cheering us on from his seat on the propane tank. Ah, such was life on the farm.

Saturday night I got out my Christmas dishes along with the new Christmas place mats that Mom bought for me. We put the red candles in the green candleholders for a nice Christmas look. Toby had spent the day putting together our new grill, which the brown truck of happiness brought on Thursday. While he put the grill together (at least three times forgetting some little part each time, but getting better at it with each time) I set out some steaks. Jesse invited one of her coworkers, and we had a very fancy meal. I also baked and apple pie to finish off the evening.

After church on Sunday, Toby worked in his shop, while Jes and I went to see "Australia" at the movies. It was a long movie – sort of an epic type adventure movie. It was a bit silly in parts, but lots of fun, and that Hugh Jackman – woohoo!

An Anniversary of Sorts

Today as I drove over to WF to do some shopping and have lunch with Mom, I was listening to my Christmas Il Divo CD. One of the songs was "Somewhere over the Rainbow." While it was playing, I was reminded of my dad who loved that song – especially the Judy Garland version. He also loved "Danny Boy" – that probably gives you an idea of music he liked. Anyway, I had a strong memory of him singing, and it made me a bit weepy. Later while Mom and I were in Sam’s Club, I saw a huge bag of Peanut M&Ms. I laughed and pointed to the bag asking Mom if that reminded her of Dad. She laughed too. Dad loved chocolate – especially peanut M&Ms. While he was sick, he would ask us to take him to Sam's so that he could buy chocolate.

Mom and I did quite a bit of shopping and then had lunch at the Olive Garden. While sitting there enjoying our salad, soup, and breadsticks, I realized that this was the third anniversary of Dad’s funeral. No wonder I had been having so many memories of Dad. I hadn’t really thought about it or planned my trip to WF because of it, but I was glad that I was with Mom and we were doing something fun. In fact, we were having so much fun that I did not remind Mom of the date. I wanted to be happy, and I was afraid that it would make us weepy. It probably would have been okay either way.

Here is a past post of my thoughts at the time of Dad's death. Dad fought cancer for four years and was always a such a great patient.

Smartie Soldiers' Angel

You may remember this photo and this post from a couple of years back. Well, I found this new blog a few days ago called Wings Over Iraq and a post about packages he had received from Adopt a Soldier. The WOI post reminded me of a Jesse story that had to do with Capt. Jeff and a package that Jesse sent to him way back when.

As I mention in my old post, Capt. Jeff wrote the most interesting and funny emails. For those of you who do not follow my links, Capt. Jeff was stationed in Kuwait flying the no-fly zone back before the Iraq War. I wish I could just copy and paste his old emails here, but that was almost ten years ago and several computers ago. Jesse and I followed his emails as any two groupies would, and Jesse began writing to Jeff at that time. In one of his emails, Jeff told a very funny story about the USAF issuing a new, huge knife to go along with his other huge, USAF issued knife. He joked about strapping a knife to each leg. Apparently, there was a lot of downtime between flights with pilots waiting for assignments. You can just imagine several young men with new knives sitting around bored. Jeff joked how they had tried out their new knives on everything possible and trimmed every stray thread from their uniforms. We got a big laugh from his description.

So, Jesse decided to be funny although she did not know Jeff well at that time. She sent him a package. Inside was a cross-stitch kit complete with needle and thread. She wrote him a letter explaining that when he was bored he could do the cross-stitch and put his new knife to good use. Now, can you imagine a bunch of stud pilots gathering around the new package from home, from a pretty girl wondering what goodies had been sent – only to open the package and find a cross-stitch kit? Jeff’s reply to Jesse’s joke was, "Jesse, you are a very funny girl."

Here most recent soldier appreciated her enough to send this T-shirt. Maybe we will get to meet this soldier someday. He actually called her about a week ago. I only heard Jesse's side of the conversation, but I got pretty tickled. She kept saying, "I live in Oklahoma; you need to slow down. I can't understand you when you talk so fast." He is from NY.

My Stylin' SIL

A few years back my family was sitting around Mom’s kitchen table at some big family gathering like Thanksgiving. My stylin’ sister-in-law, Debbie, was there looking quite gorgeous. Since Debbie is always up on the latest fashion, and I am always on the lookout for some new style, I noticed her lipstick and commented on it. "Debbie, that is some nice lipstick!" Debbie, being silly, preened, "Why, thank you. Would you like to try it? It is new." She handed me the new lipstick, which I smeared on my lips. It had to be the foulest lipstick that I had ever put on. It was dry and made my lips feel like the Sahara. So, I took a closer look at the lipstick container. "Debbie, this is not lipstick. It is eye shadow." Debbie had an incredulous look, "Are you kidding me?" She grabbed the "lipstick" and gave it a closer look. Then she burst out laughing at herself, "No wonder it felt so horrible on my lips!" We laughed a lot that day over her mistake, and I still tease her about it.

While at Mom’s house this Thanksgiving, Mom, Debbie, and I were in the "beauty shop" talking. Debbie picked up a bottle of what she thought was cuticle oil and began painting her cuticles (the skin around the nails). Suddenly she stopped with this funny look on her face, "I just painted top-coat on my fingers thinking it was cuticle oil!" (For you guys who do not know, top-coat is like clear fingernail polish.) Mom asked her, "So how does top-coat feel on your fingers?" Debbie replied, "A lot like the eye-shadow did on my lips." I was rolling in the floor laughing.
Here is my gorgeous, stylin’ SIL along with my beautiful daughter on Thanksgiving Day looking through the ads for Black Friday.

More Photos

Jesse took some much better photos of Thanksgiving than I did. Take a look at her blog. Well, someone had to do the cooking and someone had to take the photos. She also seems to be able to post her photos.

More Problemas

For the last two weeks I have been having problems with Blogger. I’m not sure what the problem is, but it could be my Hughes Net connection. For all I know it could be the weather. Last week, in particular, the Internet was painfully slow as the day moved on. By evening, there was just no point in even trying to use the computer. Usually, I post in the early morning hours, so you would think I would not have any problem, but I did. The problem with Blogger was that it would not let me upload a photo to my post. Several times lately I have tried to post a photo, but would get a message about the connection being lost. I then downloaded Picasa so that I could blog and post pictures from there. It worked great with the watercolor house picture. Then I did a collage of Thanksgiving photos for my last post. Sometimes it shows up on my blog – sometimes not. I don’t understand it, nor do I know what to do to fix it. I am open to suggestions.

I will try to post some individual photos from Thanksgiving this morning.

After trying several different ways to post a photo with no luck this morning, I finally got it to work. It seems that lately I have been organizing my photos into folders. Blogger does not seem to want to look in to the folders or maybe it takes up too much time and Blogger gives up - whatever. When I just save my photos to "My Pictures" it let me post them. Go figure!
This first picture is a take-off of a photo we took years ago - kind of a family joke. It is suppose to look like the people are in a hot-tub. As Craig, Kathy and Toby stooped down behind the counter for this shot, I said, "Now take off your shirts." I got a big grins from them instead. Here is GBN2 hugging Revelie, the dog. Then there was the football game in the front yard. Jesse and Bo seemed determined to tackle each other. It can be a pretty rough game, but I loved these shots of GBN2 on the field with her daddy and then with Jesse running by, yet being careful not to run over the baby. I also loved the colorful trees on Mom's street. I took this last shot at dusk while Jesse and GBN1 jumped on the "jumpoline." My camera does not take good night shots, nor does it work well with action shots sometimes. But I thought the photo caught GBN2's delight (in dedark:)