Reba and Billy

I'm a little bit country. He's a little bit Rock'n Roll.

I have no reason for posting this other than I laughed when I saw it today. 

New Year's Eve 2008

80's party

Green thumb

One down....

2.5 to go

Redneck Engineering

Throwback

Thrills and Spills

I have a love/hate relationship with fireworks now that I have 2 boys who want to get in on the action and light their own.  What is it about fire crackers? Why is it so fantastic to set something on fire and watch it fly into the air making loud noises? A few years ago my family and I were enjoying our ridiculously large bounty of the sparkly wonders. This time we had some big ones. The kind that you overpay to get, light and drop into the tube and then run away from really fast.  I distinctly remember telling my husband, "Hey, wouldn't it be funny if someone fell down while running away?" I'm sure you can guess who fell down running away on her next turn.

Griswold Vacation 2010

Mowing While Under the Influence?

This is the sort of thing I miss about Logan County.

Oh how I wish I had a pic of Homemade Tricycle Man...

Vacation Bath

Creeper

5 days of brown bliss

Thanks Grandma!

Catching some Zzzzzz

Libby Doodles

Ice Cream Man

Darn you Ice Cream Man! Tempting the fruit of my womb with your ice cream sandwiches and yummy orange push-ups! What with your sing-song music and brightly-colored creepy little van! 

Sooo....ummm....what time tomorrow?

Crazy Jake

I saw Crazy Jake again today. He was wearing his backpack and riding a very tiny blue bike down the street in front of my house. He's always riding a different bike, that kid. And it's always something weird. Today he wheeled past my house, rounded the corner, threw his bike down and ran to my neighbor's front door. I hope their door was locked up tight!

 Jake is not his actual name, as I am afraid to use real names when I call people crazy.  Jake and I first met on a mild September day a month or so after we moved in last Fall.  My boys were out back jumping on their new trampoline, my husband somewhere nearby, and I was in the kitchen cuttin' chicken up to fry. Not really, I just had a country music flashback for a moment. I wasn't cuttin' up chicken, but I was in the kitchen...and I was pregnant, very pregnant. Yet, I digress... My front door opens and in walks a small young boy with dark brown hair and large eyes. "Don't I know you?" he asks. And then he walks straight to the back door while I'm still trying to gather my thoughts to put two intelligible words together . He grabs the door handle to exit into the backyard and I blurt out something like, "Hey kid, you can't just walk into someone's house!" "What's your name?" as I guide him back to the front door. He is so extremely distracted by EVERYTHING around...and I am extremely shocked that some 6 year old just walked into my house unannounced! I get him to the door and look down to see a pink and purple toddler bike with streamers and my new BAREFOOT friend hopping on it and tearing out of our yard and down the street.  I'm watching on as he pedals as fast as those little wheels will take him down to another neighbor's house....which he entered unannounced as well. Meanwhile his mom is calling after him from down the street.

I wonder how many other neighbors have been paid a surprise visit by our wide-eyed, no shoe wearing, tiny bike riding, distracted by shiny objects little passer-by guy.

Sonic days

Libby and I visited a good friend in my hometown on Saturday. After wrestling my lovely little 4 month old for the WHOLE visit I strapped her in the car, hoping she would nap as I grabbed a quick bite at Sonic on our way out of town. I  ordered a grilled chicken sandwich, french fries and an iced tea.....and then, much to my displeasure, the Libster began having an all out scream-o-rama. I managed to wait it out for a few agonizing minutes but couldn't take it any longer. So, unfortunately, I had to totally jet before the food arrived at my window. I was feeling a mixture of guilt AND pleasure as I drove off without my food, nor paying for it. Guilty because I knew they were cooking it for me and pleasure because they were taking so long to cook it. And then I laughed....of course I laughed. I always laugh.  But THIS laugh was a laugh of remembrance. The memory of an incident that occurred on MY watch at this very Sonic, years ago.

You can only appreciate this story if you know the owner/manager of this particular Sonic. He is a vertically challenged man with a round belly, a thick mustache, and wavy black hair. He is a tough old dude who doesn't really take any crap from anyone. He knows his Sonic business. There was once a rumor that he would actually charge people more money if they asked for extra ketchup packets. The kids in town knew of him and "lovingly" referred to him as, "Mario." As in "Mario and Luigi."  I had the opportunity to get to know him as I worked there in High School. In some ways he reminded me of my dad.  He had a quick hot temper, but was cool if you knew how to make him laugh.

So one hot afternoon, while I was hoppin' cars, a couple of young oil field clowns pulled up in their big ol' truck and ordered some large burgers and fixins.  We delivered their food, they paid, and we kept working. After about 5 minutes they push their button and call in. Mario is workin' the mic. The driver complains that his burger "don't have no cheese on it and he dang sure ordered a CHEESE burger." Mario wasn't happy but he went ahead and ordered up a new burger. Meanwhile, he sent me to get the old burger from the dude out in the truck. I bop on out in my sonic shirt and red hot visor. Just as I arrive at the truck to get the "burger mistake," Ol' boy is still chowing down on it and hands me about 1/3 of the burger with a very large mustard and pickle grin on his face........Ooooh, I KNEW Mario wouldn't have this. I took the burger and explained to my boss that it was over half gone. He turned beet red, but decided to take the high road and continue to cook the new burger....EVEN THOUGH he was getting all worked up about it. Mario does NOT like to lose money on a burger. Just then we hear that big truck fire up and we watch in disbelief as those turkeys pull out and sure enough  DRIVE off!  We all watched them like hawks as they made a stop at the shop where they worked just down the road. And I'll be DANGED if Mario didn't wrap up that burger, put it in a sack, jump in his truck, and drive down the road to deliver that Sonic burger WITH cheese! He sure did. We watched him get out and hand carry that little sack to the dude and his goofy friend in the truck. Yep. So now you can understand the fear and excitement I felt as I drove out of that Sonic parking lot without my sandwich on Saturday. Call me Thelma, but I didn't stop checking my rearview mirror until I was well over 5 miles down the road!

Zumba!

 I enjoyed a Zumba class this morning.

Libby

I told her no hair extensions and this is how she acts...

Pop Tarts

Gideon recently asked if I would buy him some Pop Tarts.  "No," I replied. "They are not a healthy breakfast food." Then, the next day a small box of the strawberry kind found their way into my shopping cart. I have eaten half of them already.

The boys still don't know what a Pop Tart tastes like.

Kids in a Box

What's a matter you?

Hey? Shaddap you face!

My Funny Valentine?

Last night we found our shop an inch under water...

Boooo! Hisssss!

We hadn't been out there in a week. 

It never dawned on me that there was water in the backyard.......maybe because of the recent snow...

booo a-yund hisss again.

OLD MAN WINTER....

...CAN KISS MY GRITS!

Hello Ladies

Hello Ladies...It's been a while..... Nice to see you again after so many child bearing months....

This is how we do...

Summertime 'round here

More..

 ...blogs involving cars coming soon, but in the meantime...

Built Ford Tough

I stood there a little nervous as my dad and the neighbor discussed what could have POSSIBLY happened to the section of his fence a quarter mile down the road from my house. "I have no idea, " I lied.

One week earlier my boyfriend and I left my house and were conversing as we drove down the road in his old two tone blue Ford truck. (A lot like the one pictured here. This was the best I could find on the internets.) Anyway, I was sitting in the middle, like a good little country girlfriend, while he drove. My eyes were on the road. His eyes were looking at me while he was YACKITY-YACKING. Just then, I see that he is drifting hard to the left of center. So what do I do? I do what any teenybopper girl would do........ I SCREAM! I scare the BEJESUS out of him and he swerves hard to the right, into the ditch and through the barb wire fence! And then....HAHAHAHA! That's exactly what I did..... I laughed..... I tend to do that. Hey, no one was injured. Old Blue was still in tip-top shape. It had a large scratch on the hood from the fencing, but other than that? Perfect. It took us a few minutes to assess the damage and remove ourselves from the ditch before the neighbors saw headlights....and then....HAHAHAHAHA!!  I laughed again. I've ticked more than one person off in my lifetime by laughing at inappropriate moments.

We headed to town in a whirlwind contemplating his demise if his dad found out what had happened.  Oh no! We found our good friend, Joe, and a can of Krylon and went to work. But we couldn't just paint the scratch!  It wasn't quite the right shade of SPRAY PAINT. We had to paint nearly the WHOLE TRUCK.  And what were we thinking?? Why did we think his dad would give two hoots about a scratch on his ol' blue Ford pick'em up truck anyways.

The Adventures of Whitey- Chapter 1

Growing up I loved having kids over for slumber parties. When I was old enough to set up the tent  by myself I began having campouts down in our pasture. We would build a fire, roast marshmallows, pitch our sleeping bags and live it up. We were only less than a quarter mile from my house, just down the hill.  It was usually me and several girls, along with whoever else would show up to join us.  We had a great time and were always within listening distance of my dad, who pretended to be doing stuff outside, and my little sister who liked to hide in the tall grass with her Jr. High friends to spy on us.

It was late on one such evening and we were all snuggled up by the fire laughing, talking, and being silly.....when we see headlights in the distance coming over the hill on the road near where we were set up. We lived on a small country road, so traffic was slim. But this time we watched as the car came to a stop behind some trees along the fence line. We all stopped to listen and heard loud, but familiar, voices jumping out of a car. At first we thought we had visitors. Then, it was obvious that they had only stopped to take a drunken piss in the trees along the road. Two senior boys. After a few minutes we realized they had NO IDEA we were all just a few feet away listening to them yell at each other while they struggled to get their zippers down.  When all of a sudden what do we hear? None other than Whitey, my dad's '66 Chevy pickup truck,  peeling out of the driveway, screeching around the corner and SCREAMING her granny gears down to our campout! I'll never forget that sound as long as I live. I still laugh about it.



As Whitey reached the bottom of that hill and came to a very bouncy stop, I realized I'd never seen my dad jump out of a moving vehicle so fast in my life! His feet hit the pavement and he was in the faces of a couple of unsuspecting and intoxicated 18 year-olds before that son-of-a-gun was in park!  We were just the innocent bystanders in the scene that unfolded next. And my dad, who apparently believed that these two guys were in some way harrassing us, was mistaken. They didn't even know we were there!  So, Dad chews them up one side and down the other with several VERY choice words about gettin' out of there and leaving us alone.  Then we watched as those two jacked-up boys with pee on their shoes and tails between their legs jumped back into their car and sped up the hill toward town.

Yet again, an opportunity to laugh my rear off.........(After Dad went back to the house, of course.)

Cupcakes with a cute little Neighbor

Aislee and Libby

This is why Daddy should not be in charge of hair and clothing on important picture days.

Exhibit A: Hair

Exhibit B: More Hair

Exhibit C: Christmas morning pajamas

What daddies do best

This makes me...

long for summer!

Mario Time!

Mario has been hangin' around my house a lot since Halloween.  For two whole months he went to school, the grocery store, Wal-Mart, the pediatrician, the obstetrician, the hospital, and just about anywhere else I would take him.  

Where's Mario in the school Christmas program? See if you can spot him!

The red "M" fell off at some point, so Dad sharpied a makeshift "M" to replace it.  

After Christmas break Sam finally left "Mario" at home. One of the parents at his school thought there was a new student in his son's class. 

Snow day

Tweedle Dee and Tweedle DON'T

No snow boots for sale in all of Tulsa.

...and DO notice the plant that I'm trying to kill.

My Brother-in-law

"Listen. I got 3 sacks o' butt whoopins in the car for ya. ....Now, will that be paper or plastic?" 
                                         -Phil


Gotta love Brother-in-laws! :0)

Trickster

Some people are gullible. Most of my close friends are not. That's why it's especially nice when I can jump on an unusually weak moment. One such moment magically appeared when I was a Freshman in High School. Kimberly, a new girl and instant friend, joined me for lunch at the local Corner Drug Store one sunny afternoon in October. *** Lunch at the Corner Drug was a daily fiasco. If you could race out of the school parking lot before all of the other lunch goers, you might stand a chance. If not, you were doomed to bad traffic and long lunch lines. If you were able to get out of class just 5 minutes early, it was the highlight of your day. 5 minutes is like 2 HOURS to a 14-year old kid.  hmmm....Just realized that I couldn't have been driving, so we must have bummed a ride from some unconventionally compassionate upperclassman. We would all cram into a car like freaky little adolescent circus clowns.***

Awesome. So, back to my original story.....

Kim and I happened to be lucky enough to be sitting on a couple of stools at the Drug Store counter DURING lunch that day. Legions of teenagers stood behind us, money in hand, drooling at the sight of the microwaved frozen burritos with warmed-up-in-a-crockpot cheese on top. Still, we were waiting  for our nachos drowned in canned cheese and disgustingly sweet vanilla Cokes on the side.

Now, I had been a patron of the Corner Drug for years and knew the rules of the women behind the counter. Being a percussionist, I was constantly tapping on things with my hands, feet, elbows, or with anything IN my hands, feet and elbows. From personal experience I knew that Barbara-behind-the-counter detested, no...hated, no....... LOATHED, the sound of money being tapped on the counter by snot-nosed pimple-faced brats.  Kim...... hadn't a clue. So I, being the good friend that I was, informed her that she would INDEED receive FASTER service if she would only ratty-tap-TAP her coins on the counter............and so...... she did just that. I, with a smirk and a twinkle in my eye, watched Miss Barbara with fantastic anticipation........and I was not disappointed. Miss Barbara spun around, cheese ladle in hand, dripping over the crunchy-crum chip-filled paper boat, with BLOOD-RED eyes and fire SPEWING from her nostrils. Teenagers scattered and ducked across the room in fear! Barbara then lifted her free hand and pointed her long, jagged claw in Kim's direction. Her words seethed from her mouth in a low, spine tingling growl.... "DOOOOON'T EEEEEVERRRRR TAAAP YOUUURRRR MOOONIEEESSSSSSsssss ON THE COUNTERRRRRRSSSSssssss...Lest I SCRATCH out your VERY eyes and SNAP every miniscule bone in your pubescent human BODYYYYYYY.....(extremely heavy breathing here)... HHHHUUUUH---HEEEEEE---HUUUUUH--HEEEEE---HUUUHHH ......It's .........RUUUUUUDDDEEEE!..................................and with that, my new friend, Kim, learned a valuable life-long lesson or two that day.....................
  
      #1. Don't ever tap your monies on the counter, lest Barbara rings your neck.
      #2. Question everything Missy tells you.

....and I, of course, laughed for the rest of the afternoon. It was well worth it.

**In loving memory of Kimbo  :0)   1974-2006**

'66 Chevy

    

 I was remembering my dad's old '66 Chevy pickup truck today, similar to this dude rightch he-yah, and the noise it used to make when the granny gears were pushed too hard....like a squealing pig, almost. My dad had placed a small block race engine in the old bugger.... Ironically, it had 4 gears.... Slowest, slow, LOUD....and reverse. Yep, it's all comin' back to me now.... the clang, clang, clang of the chains on the tailgate (caused by the constant bounce). It obviously needed shocks.

    I learned to drive in this beaut. My fellow 12-yr-old "patnuh" (the cowboy kind, not the politically correct kind) and I drove this baby all over the pasture across from my house.  The clutch dropped about 3 feet before it hit the floor. The ol' girl  had 2 colors: white..... and rust....hence the name, "Whitey."  Her bed was a stepside for anyone wanting to be run-over DEAD in an accident. Her steering wheel was surely 12 FEET in diameter. Her seats, black and ripped. Her radio...well, my dad had to have a good radio/stereo in each of his autos, so yeah, it was kickbutt. I  drove this baby to school here and there when everything else was on blocks in our yard. She was as bad as I was about getting up in the mornings. We were consistently late for 7:30 am band practice....but, everyone knew when we had arrived. She made sure of that.  Whitey was also built WITHOUT power steering....when people drove their cars to get a good workout. She ate weak-armed pansies for LUNCH (only because she didn't get up early enough to eat breakfast). She had a heater too, but preferred the cab chilly. She was STONE COLD....hard core.


    I wonder where this old truck is now.....hmmm...probably in "truck heaven." (tear)......Let's all have a moment of silence for Whitey. (moment) Pictures will be posted in her honor at a later date.