Not Exactly Gold, Frankenscense, and Myrhh

Alex has two complete weeks off from school. He doesn't have any work to do over the break, and he is beyond the years of bringing home ornaments, or little gifts for Mom, but he didn't come home empty handed. He snuck in with a little stomach virus, which attacked him last weekend. He shared it and the STP and Amanda got it on Tuesday. By Christmas eve everyone was feeling well enough to go to church and eat Aunt Sara's taco dip. By 1am Christmas morning I knew what my three gifts were going to be. Chills, vomiting, and diarhrea. Once I got the first one, it was just the anticipation of the others that made the night go so fast. By morning, I actually felt better (but I have no desire for any more of the taco dip) and spent the day on the couch. All of the buckets in the house are back where they belong. Next episode: the blizzard.

Winter Wonderland

Joy To The World

I Had This Great Idea...

...for our Christmas picture. Unfortunately, we had to wait for Amanda to get here and then when she got here it was 12 below zero and because I have many years of experience trying to get my family to pose for a Christmas picture, I knew better than to ask them to do this in below zero conditions. So Saturday it went to 7 above. So we went to take the picture. Along the highway.

The great idea involved changing the population sign. With white electrical tape. It also involved Alex on Dave's shoulders to accomplish this. And Amanda on Dave's shoulders because I wasn't happy with where Alex placed the '9', and he refused to do it again and Amanda (who has more Christmas picture experience recognized the crazed look in my eye and didn't want to hear for the rest of her life how we never got the picture in 2008) agreed to climb up and move the '9'.

The great idea also needed a one hour photo developer which we found one hour from here. It involved e-mailing said photo and driving an hour to pick up the prints. And so today I was just going to pick up a box of cards in town and mail out those great pictures. But, of course, I live in DODGE CITY where there are no boxes of Christmas cards. So now I can not send out the cards until I actually have them and I'm thinking the nearest cards are probably an hour from here. And it is 5 degrees and snowing. And I'm not going out there. So here is the picture:

Please note that it is not photoshopped. We really changed the sign with electrical tape, stood along the highway in single digit weather, and took this picture of ourselves. If I could photoshop, I would have taken the picture in October, changed the sign with photoshop and photoshopped Amanda in. But what fun would that have been?

Last Minute Gift Ideas

1. A Pedi-egg.
2. Photoshop

Regifting Ideas

Things I would like to give back or away:
1. My Dad's feet.

Not Normally Like This

It is minus double digits outside today. Neither car will start. Amanda is here. We are going to make hot drinks and watch the abs of steel video. And stay in our pajamas all day. And try to clear yesterdays dishes off the counter before Dave and Alex get home. But if we don't get that far down our list there's always tomorrow. When it will be well below zero again.

I Really Need To Stay in More

Over the weekend I was the female chaperone for the youth group at a teen conference/concert in the big city. When the STP was a YP (youth pastor) for 10 years, I did not even once serve as an adult chaperone to anywhere. Alex asked me to go , so I thought it was a good thing that he thought I was cool enough to travel with the youth group. Turns out they were just desperate for a female chaperone. Turns out that last year a teen girl spent the entire weekend throwing up. And the female chaperone spent the entire weekend cleaning up and driving her to meet her mother half way home. No one told me this ahead of time. I only found out through snippets of conversation. Like these:

Why didn't Lisa come?
Her Mom wouldn't let her because she spent the whole time last year throwing up.

Do you want to eat at McDonalds?
Oh yeah, this is the McDonalds where Lisa threw up last year.

Surprisingly, last year's chaperone was busy this weekend. Too busy to spend the weekend with 8 teen girls. Know what's worse that 8 teen girls? Eight tired teen girls. Know what's worse than really loud music? Really loud music in the dark with strobe lights--trying to keep track of eight teen girls. Evidently there is a good reason the YP never asked me to chaperone with him.

The headline band was skillit. I can't tell you anything about them, except that they were loud. Some of my teen girls got their autographs. When they showed them to me, I just said
Wow, groovy!
because I couldn't read their names. Unintelligable writing and unintelligable lyrics but evidently they are really good because they are 'like my favorite band'. And evidently there are lyrics. Because some teen girls were singing along at the top of their voices. At least I think they were singing. I couldn't really hear anything and it is difficult to read lips of screaming teen girls.

So my plan to get out more is going really well. I have other things to blog about, but I am way too busy. I'll try to update more often. But to do that I would have to stay in...

C, I'm Still Thankful...

61. Christmas trees
62. Colorful lights
63. Candy Canes
64. Cocoa with mini marshmallows
65. Cough drops
66. Cars that start
67. Co-workers
68. Celery
69. Carrots
70. Cosmic brownies

Building Relationships on a Ladder

True to my pledge to get out more, I ate supper at the bank last night. It was the 'decorating party'. Starts at 5:30. Pizza and chicken, decorate the lobby, and Santa comes. Simple enough if you've done it before. Just a few complications if you are new. Bring the family? Yes. Kid's sit in Santa's lap? Yes. What time do we eat? You ask a lot of questions.
(The last time Alex visited with Santa he asked for a tape dispenser to tape his sister's mouth shut. Fortunately, this was in the days of his speech impediment and Santa didn't really have a chance to figure out what he was saying before I tore Alex from his lap. He was three.)
I talked Dave and Alex into attending with me. I decided to attend for 1 hour (and make our getaway before Santa arrived). I fed them a little supper at home in case the pizza arrived after we left. So, of course, they were eating right at 5:30. By 6:00 we were standing in the lobby looking at a ginormous tree. A handful of kids were hanging ornaments on the bottom two branches. And there were two strings on lights on the top of the tree. Everyone else is standing around looking at each other. So Dave gets the ladder positioned and so as not to leave him hanging, I climb up the ladder and attempt to string lights from branch to branch.
Lest you think this is a lovely picture, let me remind you that I have gained 15 pounds in the last four months. I am still wearing the same jeans. I have cleverly disguised my mushroom stomach with a Christmas sweatshirt. When I look in the mirror I remind myself to keep my stomach sucked in and stand to the back of the crowd. But, no, instead I climb up on a ladder in the middle of the room, above everybody's head, and raise my arms in the air. Lovely.
By the time I come to my senses, I realize it is time to go. I take what little dignity I have left and make a hasty retreat. Dave and Alex decide to stay and finish the lights and wait for Santa.
Santa brought Alex a great personalized sweatshirt. Dave got to meet some of the people I work with. I got out of the house and a piece of pizza. Like I needed that pizza.

I Gotta Get Out of Here

I have discovered why it is getting more difficult to post. I don't get out enough. I don't really know where to go to look for adventures, but I am getting motivated to start looking actively for one. Or two. But not many more than that for right now. I'll let you know how it goes. Until then here is how the Fern Green Table turned out.

Before:

After:

On With the Show!

51. Comments
52. Paychecks
53. Mrs. Potts
54. Big mugs
55. Countdowns
56. Gluten Free Oatmeal
57. Recipes you can count on
58. Pomengranate 7-up
59. Diet Pepsi
60. Hope

The Last 50?

Really, I didn't plan to get to the end of the month and be 50 short of one hundred things I'm thankful for. It is much easier to be thankful each day for a few things than to sit down and try to list 50 at once. Should I continue into next month being thankful? Or just live in denial that tomorrow is December. That would solve several of my other problems as well.

51. Cable TV
52. Large closets
53. Cardboard boxes
54. Pancake syrup
55. Tortilla chips
56. My Mom
57. My Dad
58. Scotch tape
59. The internet
60. MP3

Over the Road and Through the Pass

There were no rivers, no woods, and it wasn't our Grandma's house, but...

We were invited out for Thanksgiving dinner. We took the road less traveled. (It is also the road most traveled. It is in fact the only road. This is the good section.)

This is the house that sits 25 miles from just about anything.

We could see it up on the hill, but then you had to drive up the 'driveway'.

By then the sun was setting.

They posted a sentry to look for us.

It was a wonderful dinner with extremely gracious people, who cooked gluten free right down to the pumpkin AND pecan pies for the STP. And they sent home leftover pie.

We were very thankful.

The Chandelier

The big reveal of the dining room included only a wish for a chandelier for above the table. I mentioned it to a CL (church lady) and she says she has one in her basement. It was in her house when she bought it and she always hated it cause it needed cleaned and it hung crooked. So I could just have it. So I took it. And I had it rewired by a professional. (I don't really trust the STP with things that might catch the house on fire. And he wasn't too keen on the idea of the chandelier in the first place.) And I cleaned the crystals. And the STP put it up in the dining room. (The STP can handle that sort of wiring and by then he was convinced I wasn't giving up on the idea.) And I like it because although it isn't craftsman style and it is fun. Sadly it was missing 7 of the 144 crystals that it needed. CL says she has no idea why they aren't there. I just strategically placed the empty spots towards the far side of the chandelier. And I reveled in it.

Enter LGWTA (Little Girl Who Talks Alot). She takes a look at the chandelier hanging on my ceiling and says she had a crystal like that once. She and CL's grandaughter used to play with them in CL's basement. Maybe she still has it somewhere...

So I stopped hoping that CL will find the missing crystals somewhere in her house. I figure they went home tucked away in little girls' pockets. And I took one crystal to the light store to see if they could maybe order some and to see how much they would cost. And the LOL (Little Old Lady) at the light store brings out her box of mismatched crystals (Picture my mom's button box--only full of different prisms and crystal) and at the bottom of the box she has 5 crystals that match perfectly. And I'm thinking that maybe LOL's granddaughter used to play with CL's granddaughter. But she only charges me $1.25 per crystal. And now the chandelier looks like this. And I don't want a chandelier anymore, because I have one. Now I want a little glass lamp with dangly crystals to set on my Fern Green table.

Oh, and I want to be the kind of grandma who has a box of things that little girls would want to play with.

The Door

We love the door. Dixie does not love the door. Behold, I sit at the door and whine...

Ten More

41. Sweaters
42. Leftovers
43. My new phone
44. Dinner invitations
45. Claire Marie the Fabulous
46. Optimus Prime
47. e-mail
48. Brothers
49. Sisters
50. Jell-o

Decisions Made

I am not going to paint the door orange. The stain turned out so pretty that I put on the back of the door that I decided to use it on the front too. One more coat and it is ready to rehang. The incredibly handy STP hung the door last Friday. He did it just the way I wanted it. He scored big points with me for that. Because my primary love language is 'acts of service'. And he knows it. I rewarded him with a little of his primary love language. Wait...where is this post going? Let's just move on....

I also need one more coat on the table. I still wish it was coriander. Fern Green is a little too bright. But I own the Fern Green and I already have 2 coats invested on the table. After some debate I decided not to call it coriander. That would just make me wish it was coriander. I decided to forget all about coriander. (I am not doing too well with that.)

In addition to those two projects, I also completed a computer project over the weekend. (Lest you think I had an overly productive weekend: What I didn't do included dishes, laundry, and grocery shopping.) The computer gives me a crick in my neck. It has to do with my progressive lenses and my monitor placement. I have to tilt my head way back in order to see through the bottom of my lenses to read the screen. And then back down to look at the keyboard because I never really mastered typing without looking. (Typing is what they used to teach in school instead of 'keyboarding'. Keyboarding sounds way more fun than typing. I might have worked harder in keyboarding class. But if I was young enough to have had keyboarding, then I wouldn't be old enough to need progressive lenses.) If I just look at the keyboard and not at the monitor, then I end up typing a big string of letters in a dialog box that I somehow opened by mistake. So my neck is sore from working at the computer. But the project was pretty much fun to do and I got it done and that is good. I made it for someone else, but I liked it so much I decided to get one for myself.

I can't decide what to do tomorrow. It's my day off and I'd hate to spend it cleaning, doing laundry or grocery shopping.

Still Counting...

31. Green Paint
32. Red paint
33. Black paint
34. Yellow paint
35. Blue paint
36. White paint
37. Off-white paint
38. People who name paint colors
39. Fern Green paint
40. Coriander paint

I wanted to paint the table coriander 'cause I like the name better that Fern Green, but Dave said I should maybe choose by the way it looked rather than the name. I am still thinking about painting the door in the big room Fall Leaf (okay--orange). Still thinking....

I'm Going to Paink it Geen

I own several tables. The one in the dining room that we stack things ..er.. eat breakfast and dinner at. The one in my bedroom that I stack..er...use as my home office. The one in Alex's room that he stacks..er..does his homework at. One in the big room that used to be in my old kitchen that I just couldn't part with when we moved. There was one in my old laundry room that I stacked laundry on. It didn't move with us. There was a little table that the girls used to have tea parties on. I painted it and sent it to Claire. I have a folding table in the attic--the kind you call a card table unless you are married to a STP.

I have one more table. It is in my head. It belongs along the empty wall in the living room. I know exactly what it looks like. I know how much I want to spend on it. It is perfect. I just don't know where to find it. But the other day I went into the used furniture store in Dodge City to see if my table was there. My perfect table wasn't there, but I found a great temporary table. One that will do until I find the perfect table. It is the perfect size and it folds--kinda. The top lifts off and the legs fold flat. It cost all of 15 dollars. It is made of wood and the best thing is that it needs painted. So I'm going to paint it green. I bought the green paint yesterday and I sanded this morning. Ready to paint?

I was born ready.

Signs of Fall

The View From the Front Porch--

Not that it was a contest or anything, but here is what I painted:

And here is what God painted:

And this:

And this:

Oh, yes, God wins big time tonight.

And 10 More

21. warm days in November
22. little meatloaves with the good sauce
23. miscreants who make the honor roll
24. ice cream with toffee bits
25. Monday Night Football
26. balancing at the end of my banking day
27. warm pink slippers
28. an evening with nowhere to go
29. finished projects
30. pencils with erasers

The Miscreant and the Diet Pepsi

miscreant
n. a disbeliever; heretic
adj. depraved; behaving badly

I haven't had a Diet Pepsi in a week. Just to prove that I don't really need it and I can stop any time I want to. (I don't really plan to stop. As soon as I convince myself I can stop any time, I plan to buy a cube of DP Max, hide it under Amanda's bed and drink 23 of the 24 cans myself.)

Outside the youth building, three youths were observed tossing cans of Diet Pepsi into the air and watching them explode on the concrete slab that is the basketball court. Here is the back story. The youth pastor gave them a twelve pack of warm, outdated diet pepsi. On the way home they discovered the explosive power contained therein. After they had launched 4 cans the youth pastor spied them and confiscated the remainder of the 12 pack. He called their parents and reported said behavior. Alex, one of the co-conspirators, said he felt like a miscreant. As well he should. That is no way to treat Diet Pepsi.

The basketball court got scrubbed. And I'm sure he meant miscreant as in 'behaving badly' rather than 'heretic'.

The List Goes On

11. my husband
12. my Bible
13. the color orange
14. paint
15. paintbrushes
16. Steeler football on TV
17. my Jesus
18. ice crystals
19. jumper cables
20. parking lights

Let Me Make That Crystal Clear

It was too cold to paint today, but the fence is completed to the point that Dixie could run outside. Bring on the squirrels, she says.

Tech Support

I just want to say that the STP (small town pastor) fixed the internet on my computer and built a gate today. I am married to one awesome man.

Pumpkin Pi

30 Days of Gratitude

My internet is not working on my computer. This is a source of ongoing frustration. But fortunately my husband has a computer which works. So if I work quickly while he is up on the mountain I can post ten things I am thankful for today.
1. On line bill pay
2. Public schools
3. Books about Peter Pan
4. Red haired boys
5. Paint rollers
6. Dish washers
7. Pick up trucks
8. Apple butter
9. Nail clippers
10. Rain

In other news: Alex was a bedsheet ghost for Halloween and the cruised the north end of town with another family (in the family tradition of the most candy for the least effort). We carved a pumpkin, which I will post a picture of at a future time. We bought a freezer. I decided who I am voting for tomorrow. And I am rethinking my pro-life/pro-choice stance.

Sheriff's Report

Recent activity of the Big Horn County Sheriff's Office:



Oct 6--Ten black cows were reportedly

roaming on Greybull River Road. A deputy

responded but the cows had already gone home.





So those things you were planning on doing until the cows came home? You can stop now.

It's All About Mii

So we got a Wii. You know to celebrate the end of the first nine weeks. So far all we have is the WiiSports. So Alex made me a Mii. Which is a little figure who kinda looks like me. And together we played baseball, and bowling, and golf, and tennis. My Mii is just as coordinated as I am, so it is challenging to play these sports. We had to play two games of baseball and bowling, because I won the first games and evidently you can't go to bed if you've been beaten by your mother. Here is my Mii:
Then Alex convinced me to try boxing. (Only one can play this at a time because we only have one little dohickey to attach to the thingy controller. I am going to add a dohickey to my Christmas list so we can box each other.)





I should tell you that I do not think boxing should be legal, let alone a sport, and certainly not a sport children should have any exposure to and, if it were a sport, civilized women approaching 50 should definately not have even the slightest interest in it. That said, I found myself leaping about the Big Room, flailing both hands in the direction of the TV, while my Mii beat up a Mii named James. And a Mii named Steve, and several other Miis whose names I didn't bother to remember. And today after lunch I thought briefly that I could probably figure out how to turn on the Wii all by myself and just KO a few Miis.
Oh yeah, here's Mii and my bad self. (If I could attach music here, I would have Chicken Little sing "Wii Are The Champions".)

And today my arms are sore. Probably from painting.

Slowest Fence in the West

This is the gate that goes in the front of the yard and finishes the fence. We managed to piece it together on Saturday. And today I brought it inside to prime it because it is too cold to paint outside. We have no idea how to install the gate. But isn't it cute? I primed it this evening, but it was too cold to go out and try it on. But you know I wanted to. We have one more gate to piece together for the back of the yard. But all the pieces are cut and I primed the pickets this evening as well.
Also FYI Dave mowed the grass on Saturday. If you don't get real close it looks like a yard. Well, half a yard.
Also, FYI, the color behind the fence in the picture is 'pumpkin butter' and three walls of the Big Room are now that color. The final wall will be 'fall leaf'. Hopefully while it is still Fall.

Let's Make a Deal

Alex called after school on Friday to say that he was at a friend's house for his birthday party which happened to be a sleepover and could I bring his sleeping bag and his pillow and anything else he might need ,but please don't bring anything embarrassing. I said I would have to talk to the mom of the friend to verify that he actually was invited to an actual birthday party and forget the sleepover because he had to get up early on Saturday and be a decent person. He called later to beg to spend the night because I am the same person who tells the dog I will absolutely not feed her from the table and then slips her a piece of meat if she begs long enough and because Alex knows I am this person. So I said he could spend the night but he would have to promise not only to be a decent person, but to have a positive enthusiastic attitude about the trip to Yellowstone on Saturday. He spent the night, but as with most middle school overnighters there was no sleep involved. So he slept the whole way to Yellowstone. See him not in the welcome to Yellowstone picture?

When we got to the mudpots, I decided to call in my favor and made him get out of the car. Here is the video from the mudpots. Listen carefully and you can hear the Princess comment on his wonderful attitude.

(The Princess swears she has told me how to work with my video, but evidently I am hopeless. Just touch your right ear to your right shoulder and press the play button...)

He did perk after I reminded him of our little deal. That is him playing in the geyser steam.

And here he is propped up along the road with the rest of us--in the quintessential Yellowstone family picture. Are we making memories, or what?

Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio?

When you don't blog I miss you and think terrible things about you. When I don't blog, I miss myself.

While I was gone Stasi and Micah came to visit, the fence began to stand upright (in the yard instead of the garage), I did a little match making, and I went to Yellowstone for the last time this season, saw Old Faithful erupt and ate at the Snow Lodge and at McDonalds and at the Chinese restaurant in Dodge City. I took pictures of most of those things with the best intentions of sharing them with you. But a week has passed and instead I have pictures of the bacterial mat around the geyser basins in Yellowstone. I know, everyone else has pictures and video of Old Faithful and I have shots of the ground around the edge. It could be worse. At least I am not sharing video of microbes.

I picked colors for the big room. Pumpkin Butter and Fall Leaf. Now I am deciding what to hang on the wall. My first thought was that I should hang mounted animal heads. But since I didn't have any, then I thought maybe I should hang pictures of animal heads on the wall. In sepia tones, so that it has that authentic western look. Or maybe western landscapes. Or shots of Dodge City. But then I hit on this great idea to enlarge and frame the pictures of the bacterial mats from Yellowstone. Authentic Western Art. I'm pretty much a genius.

I tried to move these things around and I only succeeded in underlining a random bit of the text. Forget what I said about being a genius.

Yoda Was There

Saw Yoda's car while we in Montana last week. Good thing he drives a Subaru, because Montana got about three times as much snow as we did today. There is no 'try'. Do or do not.

Wyoming Word of the Day

ven·i·son
[ven-uh-suhn, -zuhn]
–noun
the flesh of a deer or similar animal as used for food.

The Game Warden says that venison is the meat of any antlered animal. So in my freezer I have 'venison' frozen in camo freezer bags. I am unsure what similar animal it originated from. Maybe it is better that way. I also have some meat that is clearly labelled 'antelope'. So if you have any good antelope recipes let me know.

Cooking has not been one of my strengths, but now that I will be cooking 'game' meat it should be a lot more fun anyway. And the adventure continues..

This Is Not Normal

Ever since we arrived here 2 months ago in 103 degree heat and 0% humidity people have been telling us that whatever weather we are having is 'not normal'. Evidently they don't usually have this much heat, cold, rain, or wind. This morning I woke up to this. Several inches of snow and several more predicted before the end of the weekend. Even the meteorologist on the Weather Channel said this snow in Wyoming was not normal. So all I know is that I have no idea what normal is here. Except this is not it.

I was wondering when I could stop watering the grass. Now I know. I had been lamenting that I didn't have any fall decorations on the porch. Not to worry. I'll just move on to Christmas. (I think the sled was on the truck...)

This is a really great place because you can take your picture for your Christmas card the first of October and beat the holiday rush. If only I had had the forethought to have the Christmas decorations out on the porch.

And to all a goodnight.

Bailing Out

Now that I am a bank employee, I feel it is my duty to comment on the rescue plan, formerly known as the bail out.
Previously, all I knew about bank crises I learned from the movies. Mary Poppins and It's a Wonderful Life to be exact. In one I learned that tupence can cause a run on the bank and people will lose their jobs if that happens and if you want to feed your money to the birds you might as well. Then go fly a kite.
In the other I learned that your money isn't really in the bank. It's in Joe's house. And banking is complicated by fat men who want to own the whole town and who have only their interests at heart. And if at the end of the day you still have two dollars you should kiss them and put them back in the vault.
This week at work the president of Dodge City Federal issued a question and answer sheet to help us answer people's concerns about the stability and safety of their money in our bank.

Q. How safe is our bank?
A. Very safe

Q. How do I know you're not just saying that?
A. Good question.

(Actually the answer to question #2 involved something about foreclosures but since neither the Bank's nor the Bailey's ever had any foreclosures on their houses I don't have a frame of reference for this kind thing.)

Just so you know there were also three more pages of questions and answers. So there you have it. We will be effected of course by the bail out, er, rescue as it results in more regulations. We will probably have to charge more fees. I think that's how it will work. Yeah, that's it. I think I'm ready to have a financial blog as well. Unfortunately, I will be on retreat this week with PD. Fulfilling my role as pastor's wife. So the financial world will have to blunder on without me this week. As will you, since I expect I will be too far from civilization to update. But I'll be thinking about you.

I will be near Butte, Montana. I have no idea where that really is. All cities in Montana start with 'Bs'. Billings, Bozeman, Butte. Like Ohio with 'Cs'. Cinncinnati, Cleveland, Columbus. And PA. Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Does that confuse anyone besides me? I wrote that really small so stalkers can't find me. Notice I used a lot of code names as well. Pretty tricky, huh?

Toe Jam Wham

For Jesse--

The Measure of A Man (4-Him Lyrics)

This world can analyze and size you up

And throw you on the scales

They can IQ you and run you through

Their rigorous details

They can do their best to rate you

And they'll place you on their charts

And then back it up with scientific smarts

But there's more to what you're worth

Than what their human eyes can see

Well you can doubt your worth

And search for who you are and where you stand

But God made you in His image

When He formed you with His hands

And He looks at you with mercy

And He sees you through His love

You're His child and that will always be enough

For there's more to what you're worth

Than you could ever comprehend

Oh I say the measure of a man

Is not how tall you stand

How wealthy or intelligent you are

Cause I found out the measure of a man

God knows and understands

For He looks inside to the bottom of your heart

And what's in the heart defines

the measure of a man.

Choreograph that.

Tom Sawyer

Here is the fence that I scavenged from the neighbor's yard. (They weren't using it.) I looked around to see what kind of fence I would like and I liked theirs. So I knocked on the door and introduced myself and asked if I could have their fence. And they thought about it and decided I could. There were a couple of problems. Like how I was going to get it from their yard to my yard. And the fact that it looks like it belongs in a scary cemetery. But I did not let that deter me.

I got six ten-foot sections from which I should be able to salvage about 3 pretty good sections. Some of the wood is in bad shape, but that is what gives it character. I like it. I have been working on sanding and today I started priming. Notice that there aren't any people in my fence pictures. Mark Twain would have you believe that if you start painting a fence people will show up and beg to help you. And give you things in the process. Here is the sanding. And the painting.

But no helpers. Dave says maybe I didn't look like I was having a good time. I don't think my passersby would know a good time if they saw one. Cause I was having a good time. I offered Dave the choice of sanding or painting and he chose painting. If he could have chosen to pass by he would have, but I didn't offer that as a choice. Doesn't he look like he is having a good time?

We also walked over to the building center and bought posts. Now I just need someone to help build the posts and reassemble my sections into a fence in my yard. Maybe Micah would like to do this. While he is here he can build me some storage cabinets over the dog kennel. And a few 'built-ins' in the big room. You know, in keeping with my 'craftsman style' house. I'd let him do that for me, cause I hate to keep all the fun to myself.

A Story of 3 (or 4) Moms

Story #1--Mom # 1
Or should I call her #1 Mom?
When my mother was a little girl there was a truckload of people going down the street in her little town. A child in the front seat stuck his head out the window to shout something to someone in the bed of the truck as they were going past a telephone pole. The back of the child's head struck the telephone pole. My mother recounted this story any time one of my six siblings or I stuck our head out the car window. Or any time we drove past a telephone pole. And occasionally at bedtime. Just to remind us NEVER to stick our head out the car window. Consequently, and because I have a visual image of this accident created in my head, I never allowed my children to stick ANY body part out the car window. Not your head. Not your arm. Not your feet. Don't let me see your little finger wiggling outside the window. Or I'll have to tell you Grandmas's gruesome story of the little boy from Summerhill.

Story #2--Mom #2
And that is too high to be a ranking. Just ordinal.
One day, on the way to vist my mother, I had Abi strapped safely in her carseat in the back seat and the window down just a little, (You know, just in case she forgot and tried to stick a body part out.) when the child started screaming hysterically. You know the kind of scream that involves blood or pain. I glanced back, pulled over, examined the child and could find no reason for her distress. I calmed her and continued to drive about 10 minutes to my Mom's house. When I unbuckled Abi from her car seat and lifted her out a dead bee fell from the folds of her shirt. The bee had flown in the window as I was driving 55 mph down the road and stung her while she was strapped in the car seat. How was I to know?

Story #3--Mom #3
Hang with me--I'll connect them in a minute.
A six year old is strapped in her car seat. The window is down just a little. She ties one end of the jump rope to her hand and puts the other end out the window. It wraps around the axle and severs her hand. She screams, her mother pulls over. And sees a bloody stump. With no reasonable explanation.

Mothering is something you always keep learning. You learn from books, and from your Mom's advice. And her mistakes and your own mistakes. You learn to ask questions and you learn to ask better questions. (Will there be a boat?) But at the end of the day you find out that there is one more thing that you should have done or one more thing that you could have worried about. And sometimes you just find yourself on the side of the road wondering what the heck just happened here?

One reason it is good to have your kids close together: If you mother for too long it is too hard. On everyone.
So as Alex goes out the door to school I tell him to be honest, respectful, responsible and not to tie a rope around ANY body part and put the other end out the car window.

Story #4--Mom #4
Claire will be a year old tomorrow. She has a great mother. I resist the urge to call her and ask if she's seen that news story about the little girl and the jump rope. Mothering is hard enough.

Sometimes the best thing to do is pray and trust the Father. Is it that I am a slow learner or just that there is so much to learn?.

Rate My Space

The big reveal of the dining room...

I have scavenged a wedding cake chandelier for the ceiling, but it needs to be rewired. Maybe when Carter drops by he'll bring a friend who will know how to do this. Here's hoping...

Notice the new arrangement of the fruit pictures. It is a rectangular arrangement in keeping with the craftsman style of the house. Dave says if he hears the words 'Craftsman Style' one more time he will block HGTV. I think it is in my package with ESPN so I am safe.

(See Dixie hoping that soon I will stop taking pictures and take her for a walk. She is the eternal optimist.)

Yellowstone

Okay, here are a few of my clearer pictures from the day...