Medical Tip of the Day

Don't forget to drink lots of water while outside to avoid dehydration.

Eye See You!

I'm not even sure what to say about this interesting picture I ran across! Another case of someone having a little too much time on their hands!

Let's Hear It For Eggplant

My son eats a wide variety of foods for a 23 month old. Listen to the post below and he'll tell you the new thing he had for dinner last night. YUMMY!

MMMMMMMagnum

I ran across this lovely picture today. Just thought some of you might enjoy it. I'm sure this doesn't do much for a lot of you.

God just really knew what He was doing when he put Tom Selleck together. Look at that face!

For those of you that know my mom, ask her someday about her picture of Tom Selleck. I come by my obsession naturally!

Livin' Large

No cup holder

Sweet Dreams

I've been asking Blake every morning when he gets up if he had sweet dreams. He gives me a "uh-huh" and then I ask him what he dreamed about and everyday he tells me the same thing..."Cookies"! It makes me laugh! I hope he truly is dreaming of happy things like cookies...that's the way it should be when you are a little guy...nothing more complex than cookies!

He doesn't know about Oreos yet. Just think how great his dreams will get once he does!

And speaking of cookies...

If you could only have one more cookie in your entire lifetime, what kind of cookie would you want? I'm thinking Oreos would be at the top of my list.

Everyone Thinks So

OK, I know, I'm just another mother and every mom/dad/grandparent thinks their child/grandchild is the cutest or smartest or most clever. Let me just say this, I'm not sure there is any age that is more fun than where Blake is right now. I'd say for the last month or two, he just keeps us laughing all the time. I'm counting on this fun stage to last a while.

His memory is absolutely amazing. He remembers things that I have completely forgotten that happened 2 months ago that haven't been mentioned in 2 months. He can now count to twelve - and when he hits his xxx-teens, he gets a little shaky and then will eventually hollar out "twenty" with great joy! And he can also tell you and show you all about the hydraulics on a backhoe, excavator, bulldozer, dump truck, front-end loader, scraper, and other assorted construction equipment.

Anyway...I just put him down for bed. We have our routine which seems to be getting longer these days. After a few books, we do the little prayer and then the big prayer. The little prayer is where I say "Dear God" and he repeats it, then I say "thank you for" and Blake starts to fill in the blanks. Tonight it was...in order...fruit, yogurt, chocolate pudding, moose, and whales. From there, we go into the big prayer which is my longer version of things we are thankful for and things we want to pray for. Yesterday, when I said "thank you for my friends" and I paused for Blake to fill in his friends' names, all he said was "Ashley - I love you gobs." I guess he probably didn't mention any other friends' names because I giggled so much at the "I love you gobs" part (it was as if it was part of Ashley's name), that he didn't name any of his other usual friends. Anyway...I just love the things he thinks of to pray for.

I told him tonight as I rocked him and kissed his head over and over again "Blake, you'll never know how much I love you until you are a father yourself." But even then, I cannot imagine that his love for his own children will be this deep. It's hard to imagine that my parents ever loved me this much. And then to think that our love for our own children is so far eclipsed by the Father's love for us. It's just beyond my comprehension.

Let me just say this...I am thankful beyond belief that all of those infertility treatments failed. If we had ever gotten pregnant, we wouldn't have Blake, and that is also beyond my comprehension!

A Project for Lindsey

Yesterday afternoon, on our trip back from a party in Abilene, I began to really look at the side of the road (the south side of I-20), read the signs, look at the closed down gas stations and numerous other failed businesses, see what was for sale on the side of the road, etc. It was an amazing thing to look at and really pay attention to - even at 75 m.p.h. I suppose I've just sort of ignored most of that stuff on the trips back and forth to Abilene over the last xx (undisclosed number) years of my life. I notice the big things - the smoke stack in Thurber, the castle in Thurber (Thurber is such a hot bed for excitement), the increase in number of police/sheriff/hiway patrol between Ranger and Abilene as compared to between Ranger and Fort Worth, the diorama of the cross on a hill in the middle of nowhere (I saw it one time when several of the characters were either missing or had fallen over - it just wasn't the same), the lingerie outlet (when I think of lingerie, I always think of Eastland, Texas), the rattlesnake museum, the old Stuckey's at the bottom of Ranger hill, the blessed HILL itself...you know...BIG important points of interest.

Yesterday, as we approached Baird, I saw a sign that said in huge letters - "Baird - Antique Capital of West Texas" and then in smaller letters above it - it said "official" antique capital. The "official" part really made me want to stop, but we needed to get home. Just think, I might have stopped to look at antiques in Cisco and shopped at an unofficial place. Oh...the horror! For the next 5 minutes, I pondered the officialness of this great claim to fame. It just made me laugh.

So...it just occurred to me how fun it would be to hop over on to the service road and go slow enough to really look and read at everything flying by. Fast enough not to make the trip incredibly long, but slow enough were you could throw on your brakes at a moment's notice and hop out to investigate/photograph an important site. So...I'm looking to finance this project for Lindsey over the next year on her trips back and forth between here and there. I'm thinking she could take it in 20 mile increments - so as not to have ALL the fun in one day! I'd really say the fun starts west of Weatherford, so no need to stick with it all the way to Fort Worth. I'm thinking it would be good to document this project in pictures, so I'm willing to buy ALL the film for her digital camera and underwrite this portion of the project. I know that's a sacrifice, but I think we would all benefit from it, so it's worth the cost.

How 'bout it, Lindsey? You seem to have a discriminating eye for the beautiful and unusual. I think we would all benefit from the lessons being taught along the roadside every day.

I'll supply all the mountain dew and moonpies you can stand for the trips.

Stuckey's pecan logs always scared me a bit,
Joanie

God's Sense of Humor

Ride 'Em Cowboy!

One of life's greatest joys....paying $2.00 for a 3 minute carousel ride for your kiddo. Money well spent!


Going for a ride.

Shoes are optional.

Checkin' on the horse.

Having a good day!

Do we really hafta "Love Your Neighbor"?

Our neighborhood has undergone such a turnover in the past year, it has really been strange. It's not like I even know my neighbors very well, or hang out with them or anything, but we've had so many people moving out.

3 houses down on our side of the street - apparently these folks moved up big time to a huge house in the country. I never knew them...just always wondered why they never drove their Hummer but just let it set in the driveway or street most of the time. That house is still for sale.

Across the street from that house - the dad at that house got a teaching job in Granbury, so that's a logical move. That house has sold.

The house across the street from us - they finally got to move out towards Weatherford - they've been wanting to do that for several years. Nice family, but we seldom spoke to them. Their house sold to a nice young-ish couple who seem really nice. We need to get to know them.

But the neighborhood change that I hate the most is our next door neighbor. She (a single mom and grandmom who has been the greatest neighbor) up and got herself married to a man from Marble Falls and actually had the nerve to move out and live with him! She's had her house on the market a while - had one buyer she waited and waited on, then they finally backed out. Yesterday, she rang our doorbell for one final goodbye. They had just closed yesterday afternoon. I will miss Charlotte. What a sweet lady.

Now...here's the part that scares me. Charlotte didn't want to say too much, but she said just enough to "warn" us about the new owner. Apparently this new ownder lady is also a single mom/grandmom. Charlotte told us that she was so suspicious of every little thing. I guess she's been burned on a house deal before. Charlotte told us this lady wanted tons of stuff done before she would buy it. My guess is that Charlotte was just happy to hire it done and sell the house, so she must have accomodated this new owner's wishes. Get this...she actually wanted the flowerbeds (which are gorgeous) lowered 4 inches! Can you believe that?!

So...Kelly and I are working on our attitude. We figure she's already turned us into the city for an overgrown/forest in our backyard. I hope she likes dogs, because our aging pup tends to bark at the wind quite often. This should be interesting. Pray for us that we can be good neighbors, because we've already come up with all sorts of not-so-nice things to do...especially to those newly lowered flower beds!!!!