Tiny Talk Tuesday (on Wednesday)

A few nights ago as we were eating dinner, I signed to Jacob "I love you".

In his own brand of faux-sign language he signed back to me. Luckily for me, he also gave the verbal interpretation at the same time.

Jacob (with dramatic, fake signs): You....are....as....beautiful....as....a....girl.

Me: I am a girl. :)

Jacob (more faux-signing): You....are....as....cool....as....a....boy. :)

Family Night Rodeo

One of this little boy's most favorite things in all of life is dressing up like a cowboy.

(tough cowboy face)

It's a regular occurrence around our house. Daily almost.

(isn't this a great picture? they look like Jesse James and Billy the Kid.
I think the blurriness just adds to the authenticity.)

And so it seemed that a Family Night Rodeo was most certainly in order.

We started the night with some traditional chuckwagon grub. Beans, cornbread, fried potatoes, and iced tea. Only I forgot to start the beans cooking in the crock pot over the camp fire that morning, so we had to improvise and trade a couple of chickens for some already-cooked beans at the mercantile.

Then after dinner we mosied on out to the arena for a bit of friendly competition.

Miss Kloe designed and created our programs for the evening....

....and also proudly carried the banner of our great nation.....

....while honorable cowboys paid their respects as the National Anthem was sung.

And then the festivities began!

First up....barrel racing! Mom logged a respectable time on Cinderella....

but Kloe took first place with an amazing time of 14.5 seconds!

Next on the schedule (check your program, folks)....calf roping. The calf put forth a valiant effort....

but when matched up against these talented cowboys and cowgirls....

....she didn't stand much of a chance (the calf, that is). Jacob took home the prize money in calf roping, with two winning throws!

[Ah, the love of a cowboy and his dog. Our Miss Annie is a true cow dog....half blue heeler and half border collie. She is Jacob's right-hand girl. Although no herding was allowed during the competition.]

After the calf roping was the ladel race. Contestants use a ladel to scoop water out of a bucket, run to the other end of the arena, dump the water into a bowl, then race back and hand off the ladel to the next person on their team. The first team to fill up their bowl with water wins.

We declared the ladel race a draw.

Moving to the indoor arena (to get away from the mosquitoes), the cowboys (and cowgirls) prepared for the most daring and dangerous sport in the world of rodeo....bull fighting!

Jacob tried some steer wrestling moves on the bull....

but, sadly, the bull was victorious in the end.

We skipped the closing sarimony (quoting the program here) in favor of a snack.

After the rodeo, Jacob offered to pay me 6 pieces of silver if I would let him park his horse at my hitching post during the dance....

....except, instead of going to the dance after the rodeo we decided to invite over a couple of friends....

....and watch "The Ballad of Little Joe".


What a great night of cowboy fun!

Ok, this post took me forever. Seriously. Like, days. DAYS! Moving photos around and trying to get all the spacing to look right in blogger is infuriatingly time consuming. I've seriously got to take a class or something.

Remembering Johnny Castle

I was so sad to hear this news late tonight.

Long years have passed and life has certainly changed a lot since the first time I sat transfixed, watching starry-eyed as the exceedingly handsome and impressively cool Johnny Castle danced his way into the heart of Baby and every other girl in America between the ages of 10 and 40. Oh how he could make my 16-year-old romantic heart swoon! :) Don't we just love to love the bad boys? Not that bad of course, but the guy with the checkered past, from the "other" side of the tracks. And Johnny Castle was all that....wrapped up with a gentle heart and a soft spot for girls who were hurting. Just what every girl is looking for.


But long before Johnny Castle taught us the difference between the mambo and the merengue, insisting that "Nobody puts Baby in a corner", there were those other bad boys we loved to love....The Outsiders.

Darrel (Darry) Curtis was the lone father figure for his two younger brothers, Soda Pop and Ponyboy, and a stand-in big brother to the nicest bad boys around. Ponyboy was really the star of the show, but Darry....there was just something about Darry that made you want him to be your big-brother-father-figure.

Man, I loved that movie! I think somehow I felt I could relate, as a shy 12-year-old who had already gone to seven different schools. Outsiders? Yeah, I understood where they were coming from. I wrote a creative-writing paper (loosely) based on the movie when I was in the sixth grade, and got a commendation from the school principal himself! My dog was even named Dally.

And can I just say....could there BE any more stars in this movie? (I copied that line from someone, but I can't remember who.) Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, C. Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Emilio Estevez, Tom Cruise, Ralph Macchio, Diane Lane, Leif Garrett. If you're too young to have ever seen The Outsiders, you should have your local movie store dig it out of the attic so you can rent it. It's old. Sometimes cheesy. No modern special effects. But it's a classic. A must-see. Stay gold, Ponyboy, stay gold.

Ghost. Red Dawn. Point Break. Youngblood. Road House (don't tell anyone I've seen this movie). To Wong Foo (haven't seen this movie). North and South (loved this movie).

The bottom line is that I'm sad that Patrick Swayze is gone. I'm sad that he had to leave in such a terrible, devastating way. I'm enormously sad for his wife, Lisa, the love of his life for 34 years. And my heart can't even begin to contemplate the question of whether, at any point in his life, he ever made the choice to say "Jesus, I need You."

Oh, how I pray that you have made that choice....

Praying for Our Kids

Marybeth Whalen has an awesome post on her blog today from guest-poster Christy Baca about praying for our children. It has some great information and suggestions. I hope you'll check it out!

Family Nights - Take 2

After the resounding success of Family Night Olympics, we could hardly wait for Family Night #2.......Under the Sea!!!

I may have gotten just a tad bit carried away with the decorations. I do that sometimes. You certainly don't have to decorate for family night, but we sure had fun with the streamers and balloons creating our underwater ambiance. :)

We made these cutie little jellyfish out of paper plates and curly ribbon. Aren't they fun?

After craft time, we had a picnic dinner on the sandy beach (aka, a tan colored vinyl table cloth on the living room floor). The menu consisted of fish sticks, beach-sand couscous, seaweed salad, sea cucumbers, baby goldfish, and ocean water (blue gatorade).

Dinner entertainment was provided by our local hula instructor, Kahiko Kloe.

And then we headed out to the shore to catch some waves in our gigantic wading pool.

You can't see it in this picture, but Kloe is actually surfing on a fence picket. :)

We are loving this family night thing. You guys should give it a try. Need some ideas for getting started? Head over to Lost in Laundry here or here. I'd love to hear about how your family spends time together!

Whatever works....

Remember what a great cook I am? Dinner tonight revealed the truth of the matter....

Jacob: Mom, look, the carrot is a log and the ranch is the water....it's the log ride!

Apparently he has to disguise his food to trick himself into eating it.

Whatever works for you, son.

And by the way....yep, that's a paper plate you see. The dishwasher is still broken and I'll go to extraordinary lengths to reduce the number of dishes I have to wash by hand.

Whatever works for me! :)

Thankful Thursday

Aren't there just so many things to be thankful for?

I am oh, so thankful for this....

And for this....

For these....

And for these....(mmmmm)

And for these sweet ones....

(The sweet kids, not the popcicles. Actually, I'm kinda thankful for popcicles, too.)

Seriously, we have so very much to be thankful for in this country. So many gifts. So MANY blessings. How could we....how could I....presume to take them for granted?

I am truly thankful for....
....doctors and medicine.
....the freedom (for now) to worship God in the way I believe.
....my car.
....doors that lock.
....weathermen who keep us informed during those raging West Texas storms!
....cream for my coffee. :)
....shoes.
....a coat and gloves in the winter.
....air conditioning (ever had to go without it? we have. for about 2 weeks once. in the hot part of summer. in west texas. it's mis.er.a.ble.)
....friends who love Jesus.
....puppies.
....computers and printers (no more typewriters! yeah, I'm old.)
....my husband's job.

....my job.
....cell phones.

I could go on and on and on. God's bounty and grace toward us truly are measureless. And I am so thankful.

What are YOU thankful for today?