OHHH Life

....is bigger.

Bigger than you

And you are not me.

..But that was just a dream

Try, cry, why try?

That was just a dream

Just a dream, just a dream

Dream

When the day is long,

and the night, the night is yours alone,

When you're sure you've had enough of this life, well hang on.

Don't let yourself go, 'cause everybody cries and everybody hurts sometimes

Broadcast me a joyful noise unto the times, Lord,

Count your blessings.

The papers wouldn't lie!

I sigh, not one more.

It's been a bad day.
Please don't take a picture.
It's been a bad day.
Please.

I've got R.E.M. running through my head this morning for some reason so I looked them up and smashed some songs together. I never really realized how sad and depressing a lot of their songs are. [Thoughtful pause] Still cool though~very cool indeed. And apparently they knew what was really going on-a bunch of sad stuff you just can't do much about.

Well, it's the end of the world (and R.E.M.) as we know it. But I feel fine. (fine, fine)

Okay, I can't stop. Since my brain IS 80% song lyrics, I guess this is to be expected.

I just can't get out of my head how rough times have gotten for most of my loved ones lately. Where are all the lighthearted sitcom circumstances? All the shiny happy people laughing? It's hard to find it amid the job loss, money lacking, sickness and death we've been seeing around here lately. If there's comedy, it tends to be dark or short lived.

Hold on.

This is not the kind of change we were hoping for! (Oops, that was campaign slogan banter, sorry.)

Back to the jumble in my head. I'm starting to wonder if the Lord is allowing more people to pass away so fewer are here to worry as even harder times come. Or is the crowd only thinning lately from my perspective? My aging self.

This weekend as we watched a dear cousin suffer a fatal heart attack during our yearly Red Rock Canyon reunion, I found myself thinking "And now, of course, THIS is happening." I didn't feel surprise-just more sadness. More grief for those suffering.

Why does praying not seem like quite enough?

If I thought latch hooking a rug would help in these times of grief, by gum I'd be turning out tacky mats by the dozen! I just don't seem to know what to do with myself to aid in this pain. I guess I'll just have to keep praying and work on being a blessing to others rather than a burden(says the dramatic high maintenance diabetic.)

Consider this, consider this:

Everyone around, love them, love them.

Where tomorrow shines, gold and silver shine.

Throw your love around.

Happy, happy.

And on that note:

This one goes out to the one(s) I love.

(My apologies to R.E.M. for what just happened.)

XOXOX

Getting things straight

Dear Diary,

Lots of things are rattling around in my head today and I don't really know what to zoom in on. I thought I'd come here where we can be alone and jot some things down to ponder whilst away on our trip.

Okay, so first of all. I cried a little tear at the Chiropractor yesterday. Yes, it was totally hormonal -a "pretty" cry- with no makeup lost. They were giving this presentation that involved me looking at x-rays of my curvaceous spine complete with stiff bony neck and the technician telling me that I needed to come in twice a week for 11 weeks-then once a week totalling 64 (yes, sixty-four) treatments to get my spine back in the neighborhood of it's original form and my head not jutting out ahead of the rest of me like a curious but friendly visiting alien's.

After that, of course, I'd have the absolute luxury of only coming once or twice a month for maintenance. Say wha???

While the nice lady spoke, I just kept thinking about all the furniture and home improvements I could buy from Sam's with that imaginary chiro money, and then went on to visualize myself skillfully pedaling a recumbent bike down a winding path for no correlating reason but my own entertainment. I wonder how those are for long-backed ladies with a touch of scoliosis. I really like how it seems like you're just lounging around on them in a comfy laid back position all the while totally moving forward looking at the scenery....or a good book...

Ok, sorry sorry. So, acheybacknonewfurnitureorbike it shall be. AND on to the next issue.

We've now completed one rip-roarin' year of home school, the First Grader and I. And though there actually was a bit of ripping (him ripping pages of work) and roarin' (me losing my complete cool once and a while), we really did get some fairly low stress learnin' in- which was the main goal.

There seemed to be no improvement, however, in his ability to concentrate or follow directions in a group. Even a small out of shape dog sleeping in the room was enough to get his spider senses tingling toward irritation. I still cannot imagine him doing anything but beeping and holding his ears in an actual classroom. If we decide to do second grade at home, I think I'll need a proper curriculum and not the willy nilly seat-o-the pants lesson plans I used this year. Sadly, I seem to be as into teaching as I am most things. Tepidly.

Next item on the block: What's with these extra ten pounds? I het them Ignacio. I het all the extra pounds in the whole world!

Being almost forty-two is not as much fun as being almost forty. I think my chances for being on 'So you think you can dance' may be dwindling to nil at this point. Oh well, at least I've got the Yoga and my homemade hula hoops (Hoopsuckers, Shizameters) with which to strengthen my back and middle. I think I'll make one for Susu (my only niece) and take them on our trip.

I threw that video in for you Diary, because I know you like the cinema. ;)

Speaking of "our trip", we are leaving for Illinois in a couple days and will be gone for an entire week of camping/non-camping. I do the latter while the rest of the family stays in tents, don'tcha know. It is Jamey's Granny Clayberg's fish farm where J's fam stayed for months at a time while missionaries on furlow in the States. Granny passed away this past year so it will be an emotional last trip to the place they all know so well.

I like how the five oldest cousins run around that place like a pack of wolf boys. They fish, have air-soft battles, play games like Kick-the-can, and have all kinds of old school fun. The younger boy and girl cousins kinda join in here and there and play with each other while my little loner wanders around the adults playing with water and trying to braid all the camping equipment together into one giant pulley system. He is kind of in an "Uh, I have nothing to do." state right now so he and I may be taking some field trips into the neighboring farm towns to see what we can see. I am actually a little bit looking forward to soaking in the sun and trolling around in the boat with a fishing pole. This is a new feeling for me but I am trying to go with it.

That's all for now, Diary, as even you will tire of me if I can't learn to nip it. I might bring my faithful Lappy along and try to record some of our trip for the ages.

Thanks for letting me hash things out with you.

Evermore,

S

Birthday boy considered "well into thirties" by 40 yr old wife

Today was a special day for a certain young man in our house.

He's finally lost his youthful curls

And now he's all grown up!

And super ninja tough!

But he's also pretty sweet

That's why he's wanted in several counties for just being so dang awesome!

Happy 37 dear husband!!

We love you much!!!

Talent show: Day 1

I've decided to do a video talent show since I've built up quite a repertoire in my files. My oldest, always eager to please, volunteered to go first. (Ok, he's at school, but he WOULD have no doubt volunteered had he been available.)

Ratchet is in sixth grade and writes better than many a college freshman! He worked this little piece up for a quick homework assignment. I was astonished at the content in what seemed like busy work for him. I made him read it to me again for the camera since he had included character voices and everything. :) His literary talents are emerging!

(If you are seeing this on facebook, you'll probably have to click on the link that takes you to my blog to watch any videos.)

I'll be back shortly with the next entry!

Oh what a night!!

BUT NOT in that Frankie Valli seventies song way-- if anyone is now humming that old tune to themselves and imagining circling the skating rinks in their minds like I am.  Perhaps you don't think in song.  Anyway, the particular night I'm speaking of was last night, and now that you mention it, it did seem to be cruising along like a well oiled wheel on a skate. R.E.M. sleep was fully in place with all the cartoon peaceful sounds of sleep going on around us. Honk-shoo. Honk-shoo.  Delightful.

Then, at 3:00am.  Violent muffled screams went off in my head.  I proceeded to apply them to my dream and continue sleeping.  But wait, I know that voice.  It is the something's-not -right-in- my-life banshee call of the 6 year old.   Ok. So I folded myself like a rusty arm chair and started the getting out of bed process.  I shuffled along resembling Tim Conway doing his old Mrs. HaWiggins bit and began closing in on the door at the end of our small bedroom. 

Suddenly, and it always is, WHOOSH! Jamey is up in his wild check the house frenzy, racing past me headed for the stairs.  "Oh." I thought to myself. "(yawn)He's on the case."  There I wisely froze out of his way for the instant that he'd be brushing by.  Then, he reaches the stairs mumbling something about tripping the alarm.  "Alarm? I wonder what that is?" I began thinking to myself with incredible precision.  We don't have any sort of alarm, so I make a mental note to ask Jamey about this later when down he goes into a ninja crouch at the foot of the stairs.  I continued to stare at him fully trusting he knew something I didn't as he ducked and stepped in slow motion over and around the space in front of him on the first three steps of the empty staircase.  Meanwhile, the screaming continues overhead.  Now Ratchet is awake and calling down to us dutifully from the landing above.  "Dad? Dandy needs something." He states, trying not to sound annoyed.  

At this point Jamey has only made it a few more steps up because he is having to climb through all kinds of invisible laser beam trip wires to get to his son-who's clearly in danger.  Instead of blazing past him to the bellowing child or asking what the heck he's doing, somewhere inside me I start to suspect something funny is going on.  Much too tired for such things now, I make a note to laugh hysterically about it in the morning, and head to the restroom.  

Once Jamey finally realizes he's not on a mission impossible, and finally makes it upstairs to trouble shoot, he manages to handle the situation ,which was of course not a situation at all.  Dandy, in his own convoluted dream sequence, thought there was no light on in the upstairs bathroom or anywhere else (though there were) and had begun his own not so silent alarm process.  So many alarms, so little wakefulness between them.  Poor chaps.

Bad sitcom completed, to bed we headed to resume the blissful descent into nigh nigh.  Wait, no.  Is that another murderous scream?  I'm afraid so.  This time Dandy was violently complaining that the air vent was too loud in his room and he couldn't hear his cd properly.  Really? Wow. Good times.

Next it's the chihuahua's turn to shine.  Tulip, who is now awake and curious in her room, suddenly needs to see her mommy and begins feverishly trying to claw the door down between us crying loudly.  I get back up, this time feeling jittery and weak from low blood sugar.  I go for my glucose tabs beside the bed, but in my loosey goosey state I dropped and clumsily lunged at the huge bottle causing a loud maraca sound to scatter across the room as I caught them again.  Jamey did no leaping this time but no doubt would have if I'd waited until he'd drifted off just a little further.  I went in and shushed the dog once, but a half an hour later she was back at it begging to come in the rest of the house.  This time I just opened the door and she shot straight to the warm spot between us in the bed-the very reason why both dogs get shut in another room at night in the first place.  But, you know, because it's THAT kind of night, instead of nestling down to sleep, Tulie begins an elaborate self cleaning process with all kinds of smacking and kicking about, shaking the bed with each move.  OH MERCIFUL NOT QUITE DAY it was annoying!  

So the dog was sent packing back to her assigned room where she chose to save her own life by shutting it until morning. Bless her little tan hide.

This morning after waking to an even worse blood sugar spell and resting it off, I finally managed to pull it together and work in one huge chortle over Jamey's nocturnal stair maneuvers.  Sadly, he was in no mood to fully enjoy his own antics, so I am forced to share my sighting with you to get it all properly off my chest.  Whew!

 Oh, and just in case you're wondering, I did get J's permission to make this report. You see, when it comes to my amusement (or taking on imaginary intricate security devices to save a child in crises), my hubby is always there for me!  

Life is goood. Dreams are better. :D

  

*Had to rush this to post to remain timely and fit in a quick trip out of town.  Please forgive blatant errors in writing tenses and such.  !SKNAHT

Everything went OK at the corral...

Showin' the luuuv.

Here's what I woke up to on Valentines day morning:  
 
There were cards...

And homemade paper flowers in a paper wrapped vase....

Oh yes, and homemade wrapping paper around my present....which was a hands free phone cord for my latest celly.  You can picture that part yourself.

That evening, we went to dinner in a neighboring town and had some delicious Mexi food together. (I don't take pics of EVERY meal we eat so imagine 4 hogs(one with a red wig)at a trough for this part, because that's a pretty accurate mental image. 

All together it was quite a delightful day. 

On Sunday it was my turn to show my Valentine a less greedy side of myself (which would be my right, no doubt, because I'm a lefty).  So, with the help of my darling friend Jenna, who offered to keep the chaps-sweet thang that she is- I took my fellow to see his other true love....

SUSHI!!!!  EEEEEEEK!!!  I don't even eat COOKED fish(gagging sounds)!!!!!!!!!!!

But since he made me those pretty flowers, I turned off the flop sweat and tried a vegetable sushi roll with soy paper wrapping and something called "crunch" on the outside.  Let me tell you right now non suchi eaters, this stuff was absolutely delicious!!  I might even be able to crave it from time to time and join the sushi revolution currently in progress. If I could just master those chopsticks a bit more...

After making the waitress take our picture, we finished the evening at the nearby bookstore with coffee and zero children in tow.  Pure relaxation.

So, there's a story that only family and hopeless romantics can appreciate.  Girl feels loved.  Girl attempts sacrifice for love.  Girl avoids seafood disaster.  Girl goes to Barnes and Noble with her love.  Girl realizes she has made no sacrifice at all-typical.  Girl loves boy....still.

I hope your weekend was just as satisfying. 

Icy times

Greetings blogland! I am happy to be able to check in with you today as half of our little town is totally without power! Our house went without for only one night and then it miraculously came back on and seems to be doing fine even though the whole electrical unit has been ripped off the side of the house!!! What an ice storm we've had!

I went by myself for an overnight trip to Oklahoma City (three hours Southwest) on Sunday because I wanted to attend a special cousin's funeral service scheduled for Monday morning. The ice started there on Monday but several of us were able to get to the church in a town outside of OKC and then over to the graveside service and back in the freezing rain. By the time we made it back to my mom's house on the North side of the city, the streets had become way too dangerous to go any further. Though two of my relatives from the panhandle decided they HAD to get back home, my cousin Kris (who had travelled 4 hours from Dallas, Texas) and I couldn't face the increasing ice. So, there we stayed. And stayed some more until Wednesday when the sun peeked out to melt some of the highways enough to brave our solo trips in opposite directions.  

In the meantime my boys were fending for themselves and suffering a 24 hour power outage in a state just above and to the right of me. Needless to say, I felt more than a little selfish having a constant gourmet snack fests and rollicking game times with my parents and cousin, who we rarely get to see but thoroughly enjoy.

After Krissy decided she'd better try to get back to the helm of her business, and my parents to theirs, I wandered around the house in full dorkdom trying to get up the nerve to leave myself.  If you dare to watch this riveting video you will realize I'm suffering a touch of the cabin fever.  That's the excuse I'm sticking with anyway...

When I realized I was just stalling for time, I too decided to head out and try the roads.  They were totally fine for more than half the trip so I only had to kick the bravery in toward the end of the last turnpike.  Ahh, but there's no place like home.  Even if home looks like a crystalized war zone.  Stay warm everyone!!

Experimentation

Ahhhh....the art of being relationally understated.  Or is it a science? I'm not sure yet.   I'm coining a descriptive term for my husband here because he can lack for personal exuberance in his delivery at times.  I don't mean that negatively as I appreciate an even keel. I just mean he is lacking a certain element of drama in his stories when you might expect to get, well at least a tidbit of rise and fall.  

Like the time when I decided to wax on about... oh, I don't remember but it was something happening to me equivalent to, say, a tight head band.  I was no doubt reeling around and dramatically pulling the thing from my temples having Jamey rub the indention on my head until I could muster up the strength to go on.  All I really remember was that I was voicing my woes about something silly and then a few minutes of ample sympathy later, he raised his shirt six inches looked at his stomach and said "Hmmph."  in a slightly annoyed tone.  I of course said "What?".  Then he mumbled in the laziest way "Oh I guess I've got a hernia."  "WHAT?" This time I was louder, and I looked to see what he was talking about.  Sure enough, there by his navel was an obvious blowout between his skin and muscle layers! ( I apologize if that makes anyone queazy.)  At this point I'm feeling like my "tight headband" condition might pale ever so slightly to this new revelation.  Yet, Jamey was giving me close to nothing reaction wise while discovering that his guts were practically spilling out on the floor!!  (See, I know how to give attention where attention is due. ;)

That was one of probably many examples where a casual presentation on the husby's side leads to a larger  than normal reaction on my side.  I'm sure there's some law describing this imbalance like Newton's third law "For every action there is an equal or opposite reaction". Only it would be a fourth or fifth law that states "For every under reaction, there is a wildly overdone counter reaction to equal out the overall level of general action ."  or something like that.  I didn't finish college so my scientific analysis may contain nuts and or milk products.  

My whole point here is not whether or not I remember science(or math?) rules but that this phenomenon has happened again.  And it never fails to catch me off guard!  There we were at a restaurant sitting around eating chicken and taking pictures of each other eating chicken.  

(Ratchet and friend )

( Me, the under reactor, and Dandy)

Then, as an afterthought, Jamey looks at his hand and says to himself  "Yep, that seems to have done the trick."  Well, this is of course where I look up from my battered french fries and mutter through greasy lips "What?" with little or no enthusiasm.  So he lays out his giant manly paw and says "I fixed my nail."  Ok,  I'm confused.  And I say as much, so he continues.  " Well remember the other day when I said my fingernail got torn a little and it went to the quick?"  "Sure, sure," I say wondering why we are talking about fingernails.  "Well, I fixed it and it doesn't hurt anymore."  "OK.  But I don't see what you are talking about.  You're nails look fine."  Then to myself "gee you'd think he had a hernia or something bringing up his nail again."  And then the surprise.  "That's because I put a fake nail on it." he says with the same lack of affect as before.  "WHAT?"  I ask for clarity.  "WHERE?"  "Right here."  He says showing me his hand again.  "I CAN'T SEE IT!!!"  I say now with disbelief and increasing inquiry.
  

And there it was on his ring finger.  I still couldn't tell it was fake, just that it was a hair longer than the others.  It looked absolutely congenital, like he was born with Sally Hanson's on!!!  I absolutely guffawed as I imagined how that thing got on his nail without me having ANY part of it!!  I sat there laughing at him as I imagined the shopping involved in the process.  Then I moved on to the skillful sizing and trimming he obviously had done and then to the gluing and the clear coat of paint that was on all of his nails and I laughed some more!  How does he manage to be so understated even as he dabbles in cross dressing????  

OH MY I needed that little surprise.  When I asked how he possibly got a set of fingernails big enough to fit his manly proportions, he just said "It's a thumb, so I have two that fit."   You know.  Just when you think you're aware of what's going on in your house......surprise, surprise. 

And so I've decided to coin the term "Relationally understated" as a descriptive for my husbands type of personality. He has got the quiet physical comedy down and half the time it seems purely accidental. Don't even get me started on the "neighbors slide incident" that story is for another time and place!   

Do you know someone like this? If so please feel free to use this terminology next time you speak of their drama inducing delivery. It is the equal and exact opposite of the way I'm wired and so I find it quite entertaining.  It's clearly an art form. Or maybe it's science.  I still don't know.

All in a days play

Todays excuse for not blogging lately:  I can't type very well while wearing knit gloves on my frozen mitts.  

 Ok, no, that's not really it, though my mitts are definitely frozen.  I guess I'd just rather not be the prime talker, as my self edit button is usually on the fritz, and I say far too much without it. Boring boring snoozerville of a girl you don't have to write EVERY single thought! (oops)

Soooo....today to break the ice a bit both here and between my fingers.  I think I'll show you a couple of things from last Saturday.  Saturday was a wonderfully Christmassy day indeed.  Let me set the stage a little bit for you.  

I awoke after having slept in just long enough that the piercing morning light coming through my East facing window didn't get the chance to actually burn a laser sized hole right into my brain via one of two vulnerable eye sockets.  So far, so so good.  

Then we chatted a bit over coffee (and breakfast by hubby--always nice) with our in house guest, Travis, who will soon be mentioned at length in a whole 'notha entry. 

The morning flew by both peacefully and in an instant as Saturday mornings, heck most mornings, tend to do.  The boys played video games while I tidied up a bit and listened to this on my headphones.  Not the most interesting book I've ever "read", but the author was really able to describe life as a stay-at-home mom to a tee from several different perspectives.  So much so in fact, that I found myself agreeing audibly with some of the lines in the book like they were coming right from my own bank of thoughts.  But anyway....

Next, the kids and I made our second annual gingerbread house together. And here she is in all her candeliciousness.  

I probably should have made more of an effort to cover the plastic base now that I'm looking at it with fresh eyes with you.  But, oh well, it's still quite cheerful.

Then, with fire in fireplace and The Santa Clause II cued up (it chokes me up EVERYTIME- Darn you Tim Allen!), we began putting up the synthetic tree together.  Sigh.

I realize I might need to improve on my 'Jesus is the reason for the season' pre-Christmas teachable moments.  But I figure we can make time for plastic Santa movies and trees this early in December without much harm done. 

My afternoon soon migrated back to the kitchen where I had shortbread and sausage balls to prepare for our traditional post-parade party at Casa de Beck Bleu.

Oh but the parade!!!!  I mustn't pass by it so quickly.  My hair was not quite as ready as I needed it to be (read: soaking wet fresh from the shower) so I sent the boys down the street ahead of me so that they wouldn't miss anything.  Our house is two blocks up the hill from downtown so we are just naturally included in any event that clogs up our main street and we never need to hunt for parking.  We just step out and enjoy!  

As I knew from past experience that finding my three guys in a mass of people wouldn't be easy, I decided just to take in the small town crowd as a whole experience and walk the downtown area as if I were in a movie.  Here's what it was like only much less dizzying in person:

   

I love this town!!  We may leave it someday, so I try to find these drinkable moments and just hang on to them the way I do with my kids sweetness at every age. Delicious! 

This was a perfect day in almost every way!  Family fun, festivities, fires, fattening foods, farades (ahem). What more could one ask for on a Saturday in early December? I can't think of a thing. Thanks for reliving it with me.  

IT'S THE HUBBY'S BIRTHDAY!!

In case you didn't know it, I have the sweetest, kindest, most clever ninja husband one could possibly ask for!  Please join me in wishing him a veeeery happy birthday while I go off and try to forage for party supplies.  Here he is with young Ratchet in an extremely manly video they made over the weekend:  

Pumpkins + Sword = Fun



p.s. He made the music too. :D

LOVE YOU SWEETHEART!!! XOXOXO

A late because I'm Shan(and Shan can) picture gallery from Halloween

This was supposed to be footage of the army dude getting his game face on for candy collecting but his little brother refuses to share the spotlight so we have this.  It is a rare moment in the day when either of my children aren't speaking.  It's usually all or nothing (nothing being sleep) for them both.  I realize, of course, I'm just getting my due.  My mom didn't call me Chatty Kathy just for fun back in the formative days.  Here's a little sample of how it is at my house: 

The actual trick-or-treating went much the same way for Dandy.  It was like a mosh pit of emotions for the little boy who didn't like not knowing how the whole evening was going to go.  Of course, any night where collecting candy is the main activity; it's usually gonna turn out pretty decent for a chappy with a sweet tooth.  

For Ratchet, it's really all about the costume and embodying the complete character.  He's out to convince the general public on Halloween that whatever he happens to be wearing is actually his full time job in the real world.  

And then there was the less convincing performance....

But seriously, who wouldn't root for this guy on the field? 

Here's one last shot of my little pumpkins begging for candy at their grandparents house.  We figured they were a sure thing when it came to MRE's and Gatorade.

And once the young had their cavity collecting done and the street grime and makeup washed away, we sent them off to dream of ghouls and goblins so that we could snack and laugh it up with friends.  OOH OOH AHH AHH!!!  Ah yeah, who's the goblin now?

 Apparently it was me, because even though I wasn't in costume, I had the Big Shan face out and was parading it around!  At least that's what my photos seem to project.  

Here's me meeting Sarah Palin in my own kitchen as she made her final campaigning rounds.  She really seemed quite smart and up on the issues when I met her. I was just pleased as punch to meet her.

After a while, and one costume change into a more comfy outfit, I realized Sarah P. had been my friend Trish all along!  She went the "trick" angle for sure-GAH!! 

She was ready for the press to leave her alone in this next picture, but I'd have nothing of the sort.  I don't have people over often and you are probably starting to see why.

I made my famous (though hideously fattening and even more hideous sounding) dried beef dip as one of my snickies. And Matt wasn't sure what he ate before discovering this mayonaise and sour cream heart clogging wonder.  Teehee- I KNOW MATT! I KNOW!

And finally here's a creepily lit picture of the master of the house, D.J. Jazzy Jamey.  He made the perfect musical compilation for our tiny Halloween mixer because that's his thang dawg!  Now, don't you cross him!  

Speaking of...the dude is waiting patiently in the other room for me to wrap this picture laden post on up!  And now, I'm all exclamation pointy about it, so I'd better scoot!!!  Take it easy YO!  

Friday Photos: Red Rock Canyon, Hinton Oklahoma

This is where we went last weekend for my family reunion on my Mom's side.  It started the year I was born so we can kind of guage how long our family has been meeting by counting the lines on my face.  Fortunately we don't actually do that though.  Isn't this a beautiful place?  The sky is always so blue here this time of year, and it plays off the rose colored canyon so nicely.  

Those pointy things are the A-frame cabins we sleep in, boys in these, girls on the other side.  This is about as rough as I tend to get.  They have no bathrooms or heaters!  I usually sleep with one eye open always on the look out for daddy long legs and other spiders that might want to crawl inside my sleeping bag with me. Eek!  Not restful.

Here,  Beck'sboy and Ratchet  are scaring me with their boy antics. And of course Dandy below that, just living the dream.  He is never more content than when at Red Rock. :)

This is a picture of the boys and a couple people in my family that I took from the ground at the low spot in the corner of our area where the young and nimble can scale the foot holes in the canyon. Jamey of course counts in that category.  I always chose a safer way to go up as a young lass and still do.

Here's my cute little mom  standing with me, safely aground below the others.

We rent out this whole area each year.  It's a U-shaped part of the canyon.

Here's where I usually hang out with the lady folk turning out giant pans full of food to a hundred or so extended family members that come through on Saturday.  I don't ever know them all but I always give 'em a good look them in the eye when I ask which casserole they'd like a scoop of.  heh heh

Here are the kiddos again exploring the canyon.  This is Becksboy's third year to join us at R.R!  He is officially a regular.  It will be quite the crew once Dandy starts to bring a friend!  This year he brought dinosaurs instead.

So that's it, the hole in the middle of Oklahoma that nobody ever seems to have heard of.  I know it was quite a shock to the people who found it during the Oklahoma Land Run.  It would have been a treacherous discovery for a covered wagon caravan! My pictures don't show the highest walls but it is really an amazing site in the middle of such flat and windy lands now only a few miles off a major interstate.  

Happy weekend everyone! 

I'll choose Places you find terrorists for $500, please Alex

Well, just when I thought I might never post again....I did something blogworthy!!  Yes!  And it was smack in the middle of the week to boot!  I might even do you dear blog friends the favor of skipping all the warm up material and getting right into the photos of my trip DOWN UNDER!!  

What?  did you think that I, the two-state traveler, actually managed Australia?  No, no, no, that kinda thing would take much more than a mental whim and a Wednesday to pull off.  (And yes Mme B. I would definitely have mentioned such a thing to you ;)

This was the sort of down under that you read about (or let's face it, see, in the movie theater) in Journey to the Center of the Earth .  Ok, nope.  I just watched the trailer and remembered that the movie had WAY more dinosaurs, special effects, and appearances by Brendan Frasier than this place did so I can't totally go there with my analogy without feeling just a wee exaggeratory (Wow, I didn't make that word up like I thought I might have).

So even though we didn't get anywhere near the center of the earth, we did go to this really fabulous cave in Eureka Springs!!!  It was such a last minute plan in our otherwise busy outing but it was one of the coolest (exactly 58 degrees year round-I listened) places I've seen in quite a while. 

I took tons of pictures of stalactites and stalagmites along the way but what I couldn't capture was the awesome old fashioned feel this whole place had.  We were each handed gigantic headphones upon entering the Onyx Cave and were instructed to line up carefully along the yellow lines at each listening station so we could hear the commentary after pushing a tall flashing button straight out of a Dharma training video from an episode of LOST (sorry if I actually lost you non LOST watchers there).  The recorded voice playing on the headphones was so dated, he actually reminded us not to leave anything but our camera "flash cubes" behind in the trash receptacles provided along the way.  Remember those?  haha.

Welcome to the 60's dear children.  It's not quite an i-pod but these things get the job done when you need to know what to do when in an underground poorly lit natural dwelling!  

Ok, that's all for now.  But, that's only because it is getting quite late and I've got a pumpkin patch requiring my presence in the morning plus a hugely busy weekend ahead.  I just wanted to share a tiny bit of our day today and hopefully I'll get to more of it in the next couple days- barring a total blog rebellion- as lately I've been prone to pulling.  

Please take care all.  I'm thinking of a special few of you tonight as you are dealing with especially difficult times in your lives.  You know who you are and if you are reading, know that I am praying for you all along the way dear friends.  Much love. 

What? For ME? (A.K.A. Yet another self centered entry)

HEY EVERYBODY!  IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!!!  Oops, but if I don't stop yelling about it I may get a citation with a sarcastically placed bow on the corner from my silence loving town.  Sorry guys....I'll put the crock on simmer now.  

Yes, it is my special day. And for some reason this year I'm on a little marathon of celebrating.  It started with a huge batch of this from my Mo and Do, that I actually purchased at the beginning of summer to attempt to undo next years wrinkles (ah, vanity).   Then on Saturday,  all three of our ninety year old Grandmas rang in their warm wishes with cards in the mail.  I was so touched that even Jamey's dear Grandmothers could  manage to think of me so far away and get a card off ahead of time when their lives are still as busy as mine!  What an amazing generation.

Then on Sunday my precious Mother-in-law made about 400(give or take ;) of her famous eggrolls and all the sides for our large Siloam family of 16 to celebrate, you guessed it, ME!  Oh man those things are good!  They have these translucent little noodles inside with sausage...DON'T GET ME STARTED.  I had two, because I'm a lady.  But, when Dandy wasn't managing to eat the eggroll left on his plate, I crammed that sucker in my mouth like a starving stray animal, wildly looking around to see if anyone was encroaching on me from either side.  But, you know, it was MY birthday dinner so BACK OFF PEOPLE!  

Ahem, cough. [composer regained].  Next evening comes, and Jamey and the boys having already presented me with this, also surprised me with this sign outside the dining room.

And then I saw these guys.

That's when I squealed and grabbed the camera and took in the whole scene.

Jamey made a huge dinner of homemade meatballs and spaggetti with all the trimmings.  He and the boys gave me the 5 star treatment, waiting on me from all directions!

I told him if this was thirty-nine, I'd have to really strap my boots on for forty because I can't imagine feeling more special!  Tee hee HEE!  

I'm still giddy because I'm scheduled to go out with some gizzurl friends tonight to see two of my favorite dude actors Pierce Brosnan(forever Remington Steele to me), and Colin Firth (Mr. Darcy, twice over-sigh); not to mention the always fabulous Meryl Streep- all wrapped up together in one of my favorite musicals to date!  MAMA-MIA!  

I grew up listening to ABBA.  On family road trips growing up, my Dad tended to pop a cassette into the player and it would remain there throughout the trip, playing over and over for the entire drive.  Needless to say, some of the most memorable moments in my upbringing have the lyrics of 'Dancing Queen' and 'Super Trooper' scripted secretly inside them much like Gollum's Precious.  

When I saw Mama Mia with my bff Arlynda in a Traveling stage production a few years back, my eyes glowed as they drank in the whole show with thirsty nostalgia rushing back into my mind for neglected sips.  AHHHHH!  (Belch-whoops,where'd the lady go, birthday girl?)  Naturally, it only fits that the movie would come out in perfect time to see it  CELEBRATION STYLE.  Yips!

So, like I said, look out forty, thirty nine's already a giddy mess of "Aw shucks" as it is.  I simply couldn't feel more special or more youthful.....unless, well....there is one thing that would make it puurrrrrfect.  A comment from YOU!  Thanks everyone for such a great birthday! Love and perhaps even hugs, Shans