Today I went with my daughter and granddaughter to do a little shopping.  We had finished getting some bedding at W*M and decided to go to the grocery area and pick up a couple of frozen pizzas.  As we were leaving we walked past a frozen food display and WHOA NELLY!  I did a double take and backed up to see if what I thought I saw was actually laying there in that frozen food display.  Yep…..it was just what I thought it was and why oh why was it right there in front of my face?  I quickly summoned my granddaughter to show it to her and my daughter came back to see what I was looking at.  The look on both their faces would have been hilarious had those looks not also contained a bit of shock and disgust.  We stood there looking into that case and finally my granddaughter said “I just have to take a picture of this.  No one is going to believe me when I tell them what I saw.”  So here we three stand with our phones out, taking photos of the display case.  Soon we had a few other people join us to look too and one lady got so distraught I thought she was going to faint.  When we left there was a small group of people standing beside the case, all with their phones out taking photos too.

By now you are wondering what in the world we were looking at…….yeah….I know you guys too well.

Well, here it is and I am warning you that it is shocking, to say the least.  If you have a weak stomach you might want to cover your eyes and just barely peek out at first.

Are you ready?………………………………….

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That is the ENTIRE HEAD OF A PIG!  Right there in the frozen food case.  Frozen………….for sale……..$14.89……

WHAT THE HECK WOULD ANYONE WANT WITH A PIG HEAD????????????????????????????????

When we left W*M we had plans to go eat but suddenly none of us were hungry.

I have a new favorite Christmas song.  It is by a group named “DOWNHERE”.  I heard it last year several times and guess it has been out for a couple of years.  This year I haven’t heard it yet so I think I need to just order the CD and stick it in my player.  I am going to try to download it on here so that you can enjoy it too.  This is my first time to try this so bear with me.

This really spoke to my heart about the sacrifice Christ made to come to earth and the love God has for us.

Enjoy!  Merry CHRISTmas!

Yes, it’s CHRISTmas!  I love this time of year.  Everyone starts sending those email that urge you to shop at only the stores that allow their employees to say “Merry Christmas” and doesn’t require them to say “Happy Holidays”.  You get those annual Christmas Letters from your least favorite sister-in-law telling the whole world just how wonderful your entire family is and yet she misspells everyone’s name and gets most of the information wrong.  It’s the time of year you get to watch the old versions of Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer and have to listen to stupid songs like “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” and “The Bovine Christmas Album”.   Some of this seasons celebrations are wonderful and some are just plain stupid, but I do love this time of year.  I start decorating on the Friday after Thanksgiving.  No Black Friday shopping for this gal.  So far we have our outside house lights up and working and our tree up.  I have the decorations on the fireplace mantle but don’t have the 19 stockings hung by the fireplace with care.  I am trying to think of a different way to hang them up.  Last couple of years I used a piece of rope and attached them with clothespins.  I’d like something different this year but haven’t come up with any good ideas.  If you can think of a way  to display them I will be more than happy to give it a try.  I picked up a couple of new music CD’s, one is Kenny G.  I love him and his music.  I am sitting here listening to Christmas music and Coach is watching the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.  I think he is smiling more than me.

Here is a photo of my tree tonight.

Then I stepped outside and took these of the outside lights.  Sorry they are kind of blurry but it was dang cold out there and my hands were shaking.

That’s NOT the moon shining in this photo.  It is spitting a little moisture and I think that’s a raindrop.  Here is another one and you can see it’s not shining in this one.

We have had no outside lights the past couple of years because Coach had a ladder collapse on him a couple of years ago and split his head open.  I agreed to get into the bucket of his tractor and let him lift me up to put the lights on this year.  I was scared s_____less but I did it.  It just makes me feel so good to turn the corner to my house and see it all lit up.  Now if we just had snow on the ground I would feel like it’s perfect.  This moisture we are having tonight is just light rain.  It’s getting colder so maybe I will wake up tomorrow to some of the white stuff.

It’s December 1st and I am really getting excited about the holidays.  We’ll see how I feel in another three weeks.  For now, I am dreaming of that perfect, white, Currier & Ives Christmas.  Merry CHRISTmas my dear friends!

No, I didn’t head out this past Friday (Black Friday) in my PJ’s with my fuzzy house slippers.  I am sitting on my sofa in my PJ’s with my laptop on my knees.  I did most of my shopping last year this way and decided that it’s the only way to go.

Oh, I occasionally miss the music, the crowds and the jammed parking lots but it only last about 2 minutes and I get up and go get another cup of coffee.    At one time Coach and I were part owners of a sporting goods store.  During the holiday season I would get so angry with people who would actually tell me that they found the same items on the internet so they just ordered it there.  I was all for “shopping at home” aka walking the streets of your local community and giving your hard-earned money to local businesses.  I am still all for that to a certain degree.  IF….and it’s a great big IF when you live in a rural community…..you can purchase the items you desire in your hometown then I think you should shop there.  My problem is that our little community has no clothing stores, no toy stores, no W*M, no Target, no Penny’s, no Stage, no ANYTHING!  We have a grocery store, a Dollar Store, a Christian Book Store, a couple of thrift stores and a couple of convenience stores.

You can’t get a lot of your shopping done here.  Now, I can drive to the town that my office is in – about 16 miles – and they have several stores but are very limited in their selection.  To really get the “shopping” experience we have to drive either 120 miles east or 120 miles west.  Thus my shopping is done mostly on the internet.

For you die hards, yes I know that the atmosphere is lacking here but I can always light a pine & stinky people candle, turn on some Christmas music with crying children in the background and make Coach elbow me occasionally and still get the feeling of being “there”.

Thanks, but I think I will just sit here and get as much done as possible.  Ho-Ho-Ho Merry Christmas, Ya’ll!

Remember this boy…

Yes, this is my grandson, Kader.  A while back I posted that he came home from Pre-School and told his Mom that the whole class got in trouble for laughing at a little girl for speaking “spinach”.  Funny kid.  At the beginning of this year – Kindergarten – he came home and told his Mom & Dad that he and his friends had a new club.  It was called the “Butt Kickers” Club.  When his parents proceeded to tell him that this just wasn’t a good name for his club he told them that the teacher told him the same thing so they renamed it the “Black Jack” club.  I don’t know which is scarier – a group of 5 year old butt kickers or a group of 5 year old gamblers.

Yesterday he came home and told his Mom that he and his “Black Jack” club friends were moving to “Chinese”.  Not China…. Chinese.  His Dad said “Well, we sure are going to miss you.  What about all your little girl friends in your class?”  To which he promptly replied “Dad, you need to mind your own business wax.”

We have all laughed ourselves silly over his comments and he is truly just as serious as can be when he makes these comments.  I think the boy has a future in show business.

Yesterday my first born was 40 years old.  Of course if you do your calculations right you will see that I was a 6 year old when he was born. LOL  No, I have to be honest and admit that I was the ripe old age of 19 when Michael came into this world.  He was the most precious baby.  So easy going, good eater, good sleeper and even tempered.  He hasn’t changed much in 40 years!  Yesterday he and his wife went with his in-laws to the big city and had a nice supper and went to a play.  They spent the night and got home today about noon.  I kept the granddaughters and we had a ball.

Today, after the girls left, I sat around in my PJ’s for a while and just relaxed and then about 3 pm I got  dressed and decided to go check out the party preparations we had planned.  We had hired a local lady to cater a supper for about 40-50 people.  We were holding it at the Senior Citizens building here in town.  When I got there at 4 absolutely NOTHING had been done to prepare for the party except for the food preparation.  I quickly turned on the “high speed” mode – yes, occasionally I do have one – and started getting things done.  I set up the tables, ran home and picked up some decorations I keep for emergencies, visited the Dollar Store and headed back to the SC building.  I began decorating and getting things ready to go for the 6 pm event.  Since I have mentioned before that we are really limited in our choices of shopping here in the big metropolis I had to make do with what I could find on short notice.

Just as I was finishing up, at 5:45, the first of the guests began to arrive.  I think we finally had about 45 people gathered to await the guest of honor.  We waited, we waited and we waited.  At 6:40 they finally arrived.  Seems his wife got the time wrong and then he suspected something and just drug his heels getting ready to see if she would freak out.  I think he knew something was up but just didn’t know what.

When he came into the building he said he was really surprised to see so many of his friends there.  He only expected family. 

He is an RN and we had a very appropriate cake made for him.

Yes, that’s a couple of butt cheeks, complete with wrinkles, getting a dose of pain via the needle.  The little kids thought this was hilarious and when we took the syringe out it left a little hole which his middle daughter promptly told everyone was the “butt hole”.    There were the usual gifts for the “older” folks like Depends, false teeth adhesive, laxatives, hearing aids, etc.  But the most unique was the big container of Cheese Puffs.  I didn’t understand until he read the card and it said that when he loses all his teeth he can suck on these until they get soft and won’t have to even chew.

While the birthday boy was the most important man in the room, he had a little competition for the attention of the women and girls from this handsome younger man:

This is Stone.  He is the son of my nephew and grandson of my sister, Midlife Slices.  Everyone wanted to hold and kiss on this little cutie.  Here my daughter is holding him and though we tried to convince her that she needed another one she adamantly refused on the basis that her husband was too old.   Ha ha ha – he is 40.

Finally my favorite photo of all.  I don’t have very many of my son and daughter and I after they both left the nest.  Aren’t they beautiful?  Okay, you don’t have to say anything but I think they are the most beautiful two people in the world.

Here is the birthday boy and his Mom.

Happy Birthday Mike!

(I wrote him a letter that his wife place in this huge scrapbook that she made for him.  I will post a copy of that soon.)

Black Friday.  To some just the sound of it conjures up feelings of euphoria.  They see BARGAINS, SALES, THE HUNT, THE PRIZE, THE EXCITEMENT!  My son is one of those people.  He has been known to stand in line on the coldest night of the year just to claw his way through the crowds of people to nab up that Flat Screen TV at bargain prices.  He has told me of people who literally knock other shoppers down just to grab up a stand mixer for their wife, or crawl over the lines of shopping carts to get ahead of the crowds to latch onto that new camera the oldest son is asking for.  He has come home with bruises from being elbowed while standing perfectly still holding the dolls his little girls begged for.  He will start his shopping day at about 4 am and end it when his vehicle will hold no more or he has  an empty wallet, which ever comes first.  He DID NOT get this from his Mother.

Oh, I am a bargain shopper for sure but there is a limit to my committment to finding that best price for an item.  I won’t go to 15 stores to see what something is priced at.  I will check out the prices on-line and then, if I can’t order it, I will go to that one store to make my purchase – and it WON’T be on the Friday following Thanksgiving.

Wow, doesn’t this look like fun????  NOT !

Last year there was actually a death at a W*M during the door opening.  What bargain is worth the life of another human being?  Nothing that I can think of.  Broken bones, black eyes, crushed toes, stolen wallets, wrecked cars and many other such atrocities are reported every year on this grand day of bargain shopping.  Do you suppose that during this year of unemployment highs, lost retirement funds, and over all bad economic conditions that enough people will just say “enough is enough”?  We could all do without a lot of things that we want.  If they aren’t needs then they are wants.  Why don’t we try it?  Why don’t we limit our gift giving to our children and grand children to one gift and limit the cost of that gift?  Would they be scarred forever, have to go into therapy, be humiliated in front of their friends?  I think not.  If we all stepped up and remembered what Christmas really is all about and quit making it about making the retailers wealthy then I think we might see some actual “Currier & Ives Christmas” moments again.  Well, in the case of Oklahoma I doubt that we will be riding around in the snow in a sleigh.  I cut back last year and have already told my kids and grands that I will be cutting back even more this year.  Coach and I have a lot of medical bills to pay and possibly looking at some more if he has to have some surgery before the end of the year.  I think our Christmas will still be just as wonderful.

So, for all you die-hard Black Friday shoppers, knock yourself out.  I hope you get all the bargains you dream of and save tons of money to help you pay for that broken bone you will likely get in the stampede.  Don’t hate me for my comments as I will be more than happy to let you gloat about your savings without feeling the tiniest bit of envy.

Get after those bargains you mad, mad people!  I think you are all nuts – including you, my son.

There is an old cattle chute on my in-laws farm.  This old chute was used for many, many years by my father-in-law and my husband.  It has stood firm for probably 50 years.  I have photographed it during every season.  I love the old chute and the road that winds beside it.  The road leads back to the barn and then winds on down to the pond.  We park our camper just a couple hundred feet to the east of the chute so I have seen it in the evening light and the early morning light.  I have photographed it with blistering sun and covered with snow.  I wish that I could show you some of those photos but they were all lost when I sent my computer off to be repaired.  All I have are the photos I have just recently taken.  Here are a few from this fall.

Evening

Evening

Morning

I love things that endure.  Things like love and marriage.  This old chute reminds me that although once useful, all things eventually become old but still remain beautiful.  I hope that I can remember that as I deal with aging parents.  They are getting old and even though they feel like they are useless I want to always treat them as the things of beauty that they are.  They have withstood the test of time, they have worked hard and now they have time to rest.  Lord help me to remember the old cattle chute the next time I get frustrated.

We recently had the pleasure of keeping one of our grandsons for the weekend.  All by himself!  Usually his older sister is with us so he was especially happy to have Nana and Papa all to himself.  He followed Papa all over the place and they fished, loaded the deer feeder, sat in the deer stand and watched for deer and cook burgers for us.   On Saturday we got up early and made pancakes for breakfast and then he decided he wanted to look for treasures.  He found some old metal parts of tractors and other unidentifiable items.  He gathered them all up and told me he was going to make a ferris wheel.  Well, okay……..

Mind you, this boy is just 5.  Looks like he has a pretty good start on that Ferris Wheel.  Then he and his Papa went out into the “forest”  in search of more treasures.  They ran upon what appeared to be the remains of an old vehicle.  Coach thought it was an old Model A.   He remembered it from his childhood.  It was all tangled up with a tree trunk growing right up through what would have been the hood.

You can see the “spine” of the car running across the bottom of the photo.  They started digging in the front end and actually found the engine block.

Then they dug around the back-end and found some old wheels, a hammer mill and even an old cream can.  All these “treasures” have been left in the woods for another visit.  We convinced Kader that these things had been in the woods so long that they needed to stay there.  He reluctantly agreed.  He really wanted to take them all home with him and put them in his toy box.  His mother was glad we convinced him to leave them there.

Then the big man and the little man got a call for help.  Coach’s brother had shot a buck and needed help hauling him out of the plum thickets.  So we loaded up on the 4 wheeler and off we went.  Across the dam, past the pond, and through the pastures and trees.  We found BIL (brother-in-law) huffing and puffing as he pulled and tugged his big buck toward the pickup.  After helping him get the buck to the road our little man decided he needed to check this creature out.  He looked in his eyes, in his ears, under his tail, bottoms of his hooves, and then ran his little hand down his side.  YUCK!  He about freaked out when he pulled back a hand with blood on it.

Then the Big Man let the Little Man hold the deer up just like the guys on TV do.

He helped them gut it and clean it and then told me that he was never going to kill a deer because it is too yucky.  I have a tendency to agree with him.

We finished out the day by doing a little fishing and then grilled some hot dogs and listened to the coyotes howl until we went into bed.  When his parents came to get him the next day he cried because he just wants to live at the farm in the camper and spend all the time finding treasures and fishing.  Sounds like a deal to me.

I love spending time with my grandchildren.  Especially when I can spend one on one time with them.  We don’t get to do that often enough though since we have so many now but every chance I get I want to spend quality time with these precious kids.  I remember my grandmothers and the wonderful times that I got to spend with them.  They taught me about unconditional love and about having patience.  I loved them with all my heart.

I am so thankful that my Big Man aka Coach is so willing to take these little ones and teach them the things that a man needs to know.  I can work with the girls but the boys need his knowledge and his attention.  He teaches them not only about hunting and fishing but also about respect and good manners.  He teaches them to be men of integrity.  I am so thankful that my Big Man loves all three of my Little Men.  Just like he loved our own Little Men and helped them to become the wonderful Big Men that they are today.  Am I a lucky girl or what????

One final photo of my Little Man.  I love this photo because he looks so sweet and  innocent.  Yeah, not his normal pose……

I can’t take credit for this photo because his 13 year old sister took my camera out and took his photo in my yard one day.  She is really good with a camera but that is another post entirely.

Saturday one of our little granddaughters celebrated her 5th birthday.  She told her parents that she wanted a “Dorothy” party.  When they did a little digging they found out that she wanted a “Wizard of Oz” birthday party.  They did a lot of planning and decided to hold the party at a corn maze.  What better place to “follow the yellow brick road” than to wind your way through a corn maze.  I had never been there before but every year around this time you can drive by there and there will be dozens of cars and school buses and hundreds of people wondering around.  Over the years it has grown to include other activities and buildings to hold parties.  Here are a few shots from our delightful evening.

You can see that the corn was pretty tall and we could easily have lost a few kids had we not outnumbered them 2 to 1.  The older siblings had already run off and left us.  These little tikes were having a ball until someone – Masson’s daddy – jumped out of the corn and scared them to death.

This place has to be a virtual money making machine!  There wasn’t much out there that cost too much to build.  The maze, I’m sure, requires planting and watering and then they use a GPS unit on their tractors to carve out the design in the maze.  This is the design they used this year.