Our Farm

This is the 1904 and 1908 Gladewood garden! A little over a month ago we noticed a vine growing in the alley back by our gas meter and trash can. After inspection we discovered it is a watermelon vine!!! Not surprising considering this is where I dump liquid things sometimes such as watermelon juice and grease! It had 2 small watermelons on it. We instructed the kids not to mess with it and we have been monitoring it ever since.

Reese came in one day with one of the watermelons and now we have 1! It is actually getting pretty big. The kids and I have been measuring it every few days. We think that next spring we are going to put a little fence up and grow and 1904/1908 garden with tomatoes, peppers, and obviously watermelons.

We'll let you know how the melon tastes!

My week in Review and a Fast Forward

I am not exactly sure why I am blogging right now, I have approximately 457 other, productive things to do. I've completed 0 loads of laundry, there are dirty dishes on my counter and I haven't cooked since Thursday and I have a dresser to clean out to send to my sister this week.

I just feel like writing. Last week was busy and a blur all at once. Monday was my first spin class. Shane and I did it together at lunch. Before you get all, " how great of them to do it as a couple", let me explain. Shane has been working out OBSESSIVELY for almost a year now. He does it everyday at lunch and gets up early and goes if he knows he will be unable to go at lunch. I have been thinking of working out obsessively for......well since high school, 15 years!!!! Well Sunday he mentioned he was going to Spin class on Monday at 12:00, did I want to go? I'm not sure what came over me but I said I thought I could because I was working in town. Then I decided I could not back out. I went, I spun, I had a very sore butt!!! I have not gone back.

By Tuesday at lunch I was pretty sure death was coming. I ached all over and had a terrible headache. I was not convinced I was sick. I was fearful that my entire body, including my brain, was sore from Spin class. Once the fever set in I decided it was not SPIN flu but perhaps Swine Flu. I felt HORRIBLE and I was in Denver City. I drove home and by the time I got home my fever was 101. I went for my scheduled massage, no way I was missing that, then I went to a walk in clinic. A shot and antibiotics later, I was on my way. My next memory is Wednesday about 10:30 a.m. The rest of the week I felt great in the morning and then by evening I was pretty shot. That does not do much for housekeeping.

Shane had a hunting excursion planned for Saturday though Wednesday or Thursday. He was taking customers and heading to the middle of nowhere, near Ft. Davis. His cook backed out on Wednesday and I stepped in to prepare meals for the trip. Cooked pans of King Ranch Casserole, Chicken and Wild Rice and Crock Pot Fajitas along with the fixings for steaks and Frozen Lasagna. I will be excepting Wife of the Year later in a ceremony in the middle of Cabela's.

Soccer games have started and that is how we spent Saturday morning. No pictures due to the hunting trip and the camera was already packed in the hunting wagon....don't get me started.

This week is home study for me. I am picking up a new drug and will spend Tues-Fri of this week being paid to stay home and study. I couldn't make this stuff up! Next week I'll be in Frisco, Tx learning all about Micardis, exciting details to follow!

The girls and I will be eating all the food Shane hates this week. We will have fried things, macaroni for dinner and Sonic! We are excited!

8 years ago-How life changed

The first picture is Landry at little over 6 months old. Ignore the picture quality. No pictures of Landry at that age are on the computer. (A task I need to do!)

The second picture is Landry at 8 years,, 6 months, 8 years after the first.

Yesterday, 9/11/09 was 8 years since our lives changed forever. I'm not sure why it hit me so much yesterday. Maybe it was because I spend so much time in my car now listening to Fox news or maybe I am just far enough away now that I actually realize how much life has changed in those 8 years.

Like everyone I vividly remember the events of that day and exactly where I was. I was teaching 9th grade that year. I had been sent downtown to an inservice. We were sitting in a conference room and the leader of the workshop told us what she had heard. Of course at that moment it was the thought of how sad that a plane had flown into the WTC. Little did we know how that moment would change our lives forever. As details came in we realized this was not an accident. Ms. Parrish, the leader gave us a little bit of time to pray and make phone calls. It is very hard to explain why but I wanted to drive to Susan's house and get Landry. I suppose it was a mother;y instinct kicking in. After I talked myself down from that I called Susan and checked in. She had one child in college and was doing the same as I was, trying to check in on her. The next phone call I had to make was to my dad. I am not sure why but I needed to talk to him. It was not for the reason one might think. I did not need protection or was it because I was scared. My dad fought in Vietnam and is as patriotic as any one I know. I needed to talk to him to check on him. He sounded awful and was trying desperately to sound strong. I remember thinking how sad he sounded. I cried for him and all the others that have tasted the bitter taste of war. I think I remember him saying he felt nauseous.

The next picture had always gotten to me. I cannot, in my wildest imagination, imagine what it felt like to be told that America was under attack. The most amazing, yet criticized part of this picture is that President Bush did not react. Much like my dad tried hard to sound strong for me, President Bush looked strong for the children he was in front of. He did not just up and rush out of the room. He said he did not want to worry them. We've all been told devastating news before and had to keep a strong face for our kids, students, spouse, or whoever. That is not to say we did not lose our minds once we were in private.

I also remember watching the President speak that night and feeling a sense of peace as he spoke. I knew that he had been praying about what to say and that we were going to be alright. As Shane and I laid down that night I remember getting up to do something I never did and still don't do. I locked the door to the garage. I felt this overwhelming sensation to make sure we were safe. Weird....like terrorists were coming through my garage????

I also journaled for Landry. I wanted her to have memories of the world as I knew it. I felt so sad to know her world changed that day, a world she didn't even know yet. My kids have never known going to the airport and greeting people as they get off the plane. They have never sat with me at a gate as I waited for a plane. They have never known their country not at war. Landry has seen the devastation to a family as they learn their son was killed in action. There is so much about their world that is different from the world I grew up in. The saddest part is that their world is now my world. I cannot remember much about the world before 9/11 except that it was different.

I loved the patriotism that this country showed for the months following 9/11. I truly believe if we always had as much pride as we did in those months we'd be a better country. I have stood at Ground Zero. I felt a feeling that I have only felt in one other place, the Vietnam Memorial in D.C. In a city of millions, it was silent. I wish NYC could get their acts together and get a real memorial erected. That made me sad.

I hope this country can come together and continue to flourish. I worry sometimes though. So many politicians have become more set on their parties' agenda then they have on the agenda for America.

All this being said, America is still the greatest country in the world. God Bless America.

A Family Tradition

Landry, Reese and Gran Gran picking peas

When Landry was 2 she started helping Sandy, Shane's mom, shell black eyed peas. They would sit on the porch for hours with Granna, Shane's grandmother and Caroline, the neighbor down the street. They were all amazed at how long Landry would sit and shell. She has always had a very long attention span. Putting up peas is something that Shane's family has done for years and years. Sandy has an electric pea sheller that her mother and mother-in-law bought together when Sandy was in high school(she thinks).

10 bushels of Black eyed peas

Shane was out of town this weekend so the girls and I spent the better part of two days in Stanton. Day one included Sandy, Granna, Pa Paw, Landry, Reese, Cody(a friend of the family who has joined us many times, she is around Shane's PaPaw's age), Frankie Jo and myself. Day 2 was a repeat of people except Amanda, Jeremy's wife, replaced Cody and their 2 year old Aiden joined us.

I really took time to think about how fortunate we are to live the life we do. The girls get to do things that many kids never do like sit on the porch with their grandparents and hear stories, pick peas, see how plants grow, drive tractors, play in dirt and spend the day with their cousins getting dirty and screaming! Sometimes I think I spend too much time thinking of the things I wish I had instead of enjoying the great life I do have. It's a perfect life but is any one's?

Landry and Granna picking peas

Vivian(Granna) and her daughter Frankie Jo shelling

Pa Paw and Aiden, Shane's nephew join in the action. Pa paw and I ran the sheller behind him. Aiden was occupied with the cat.

The peas were all shelled in 2 days. The peas are cooked and then cooled. They are then put into quart sized bags and vacuum sealed and frozen. They will stay good in the freezer for a year or so. I am not sure if they will stay longer than that as ours never last beyond that time! They are so delicious and easy to prepare this way. We put in lots of work for 2 days and enjoy the fruits of our labor for the year!

After 2 days we had about 100 bags of peas in the freezer and Sandy still had 2 huge bowls of uncooked peas to blanch and freeze.

Lord, thank you for the gift of family. I so often forget to thank you for the great life You have blessed me with with. I take this life for granted so many times. We are so blessed with family that loves us and teaches us amazing lessons. I am so thankful my children are blessed with generations of hard working, faithful families. Please forgive me for taking this for granted. My children will be blessed because of the faithfulness of generations.

Let the fun begin!!!!!

From Tuesday, September 1st, through at least the first of march I am officially a widow. For those unaware, Dove season opened on Tuesday. Shane and Landry joined the hoards of people (men) out shooting on Tuesday. This morning around 6 something he and his brother and a friend headed off to New Mexico for yet another hunting adventure. They are hunting Antelope. I should follow that statement with saying that we already have 2 antelopes on our walls.

Here is a snapshot from the office

4 heads,not so bad you say.....There are 17 heads throughout my house. That is 34 beaty eyes staring at me everyday! We have a variety of animals. Ones from Texas, New Mexico and South Africa. Do you know what a nilgai is.....have you laid awake at night wondering? Well here it is

Wanna see the dining room?.....South Africa at it's finest. Any of you who know me, know that I in no way care if Shane goes hunting. In fact, it is much to the dismay of friends and family members that I NEVER object to him leaving. I decided long ago that he hunted well before I met him and to expect that to change is completely unfair and not going to happen. The girls and I have great fun staying in our PJs all weekend and going for shopping trips. Bring on the hunting!!!