Fort Worth Stock Show

Well, our tour of our great state continues!  And the stock show season comes to an end for us.  Going to The Fort Worth Stock Show was our "big" show this year.  When I say big, I mean BIG!  There were over 1200 lambs, 800 of those were the type of lamb SweetBoy showed, all with the Grand Champion prize in their sites.  Pretty stiff competition!

SweetHeart, SweetBoy, and our ag teacher went down Thursday to get Lightnin entered.  Friday SweetDoll, SweetTate, and I made the trek.  (SweetDoll has a thing about perfect attendance, and there wasn't much reason not to wait.)  When SweetBoy was packing, he cracked me up!  He said, "Mom, I want to look professional.  Like I totally know what I'm doing and have been here before."  During some of their down time Thursday, he got his boots shined...because he wanted to look professional.  :)  Gotta love my boy!

When we went to the show Saturday, of course SweetDoll and SweetTate had to get theirs done too!  They looked like twins sitting up there on the shine stand.  The gentleman said he would do it for $5, but I don't think he scrimped on any part of it!  (It couldn't have been that people were stopping and taking pictures.  He was getting attention for his business!  That's fine with me--he did a good job!)

SweetBoy had to show us around all that he and Dad had already scoped out.  We saw all kinds of animals, including this buffalo and cute animals at the petting zoo!  And we watched a demonstration on milking a dairy cow.

Of course, we had to spend some time in the horse arena.  They weren't doing anything super exciting the days we were there, but we saw some beautiful horses!

Mostly we hung out in the sheep barn. 

Then it was time to get Lightnin ready.  A little exercise.

Bath time!

 The weather was absolutely gorgeous!  So a walk to air dry worked just fine.  SweetBoy needed it as much as the lamb did!  He was soaked!  And of course, SweetTate and SweetDoll were not far behind!

Saturday we watched some of the fine wool competition.  We learned a lot!  The judges and staff made it run so smoothly!  Oh my goodness, that judge has a difficult job distinguishing between some really good lambs!

Sunday it was SweetBoy's turn in the ring.  Meme and Granddad came down to watch with us.  There were about 80 in his class.  They let in 10 at a time and each exhibitor set up their lamb.  The judge came to each one and checked the structure and meat.  Then he either pointed to go to be weighed--you made the cut, or he directed you out to the ally.  My heart was beating so hard for my son!  SweetBoy went to the ally.  Snap.  After all 80 went through, the judge wanted 25, so he went back to those in the ally for a second look and chose a few more but SweetBoy was done.

Then it was time to say good bye to Lightnin and head home.  It was a tearful goodbye.  SweetHeart stayed to go through the process of taking Lightnin "to the truck."  However, they chose Lightnin to be used for the judging competition later in the week.  When SweetHeart asked, "Why this lamb?"  They gentleman said, "He has a good finish on him, and he has a good look.  He is a good type for the kids to judge."  That was encouraging that the my kids had done a good job caring for him.  I'm pretty proud of them! 

One thing I noticed on the roster was how many siblings were listed.  This is a family affair.  I can see that in my family.  Of course, SweetBoy did the bulk of it, but all three kids helped in some way.  The days we have spent going to stock shows have been fun family memories.  I'm sure when the younger two are eligible, they will be right there with SweetBoy in the show ring too.

When I gave my brother the report on how we did, he asked, "Is there a plan for another lamb next year?"  To which I replied, "A plan...have you met your nephew?!  Another lamb...have you talked with him in the last year?!  You bet!"

Marathon post

The visions of doing a post everyday this week vanished, so here we go! 

• Birthday Boy!  SweetBoy made it to double digits!  I see more and more fingerprints of God on you, and I am so thankful He put you in our family!

• We had a family outing to Palo Duro Canyon.  It is one of my favorite places on earth.  Yes, I've been to the Grand Canyon, and the similarities end with the fact that they are both canyons.  The Grand Canyon is huge and majestic, but Palo Duro is more colorful and tangible.  We enjoyed hiking and a picnic.

• We went to see Toy Story 3.  You would think being a mother of three that I would have been crying at my children's childhood going way too fast.  But no, I cried often and it was triggered by memories of my CareBear Funshine and how lonely she must be up in my closet!  (When we played, she was a girl! Now I think the cartoons have him a boy.)  My brother had Grumpy, and Mom made them both for us.  We played and played with those dolls!  At my grandparents' home where we spent a lot of time in the summer we built a whole world for them--beds, flying cars, a slide, a swingset, a balancing beam...if we could imagine it, Papaw and Mema could help make it happen.  Even as I grew older, when my feelings got hurt, Funshine was the one I wanted to cuddle with for comfort.  I have let my kids see her, and play a little bit, but I was afraid they would tear her up, so she is back in the closet.  But she has been a very trusted and dear friend!  (I had a cute little picture to share, but I can't find it at the moment--maybe later.)
• Continuing the stroll down memory lane...SweetDoll and I went to a day camp at a campground I went to (another favorite place on earth).  I loved camp--everything about it!  Even the green eggs and ham...the cafeteria had green fiberglass skylights, so everything had a green tint to it.  I lived for it every summer!  I went to day camp 1-3rd grade, then all week camp 4-6th grade, sponsor's assistant in 7th grade, then a staffer 8-11th grade.  It is where I fell in love with sign language and met a friend who set me on a path to deaf education.  I've been down that camp road in a church van.  I drove down in my first car, a '79 Toyota Celica, the first weekend I had it and could not get it to go in reverse (it was a stick shift and I didn't have the hang of it yet)!  And now I have driven down that road in a minivan with my daughter.  Talk about coming full circle!  A lot of things have changed, as they should, and we had a great time!  A lady who was my leader at my church and then the camp director when I was a staffer happened to be there.  It made my day!  And it just wouldn't have been camp without her!

• The main event of the summer so far has been my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary.  It was a lot of preperation but so totally worth it.  I don't think we could have done anything to please or honor them more.  It was a treat to have all of that side of my family together. 

• Mom and I did a scrapbook that is one of the coolest books I've worked on!  As we worked on it, one of the things that stood out to me was their church friends.  Life-long friendships made stronger in the bond of Christ, they have served together, laughed together, raised their kids together, cried together, grown older together...  There was a picture of several of them (6-8 couples) who went on a mission trip together as young married people with young kids.  All but one couple came to the party and they took another picture together.  More than family, it was their friends who came to the party.  We have been a part of some neat groups in the churches we have been in and I have some life-long friends, but I don't think I will ever experience anything quite like that.
• In preparing for the party, we made cookies (instead of a cake).  I was making a batch of cookies ahead and the plan was to freeze them and then bake them closer to party time.  As I put the cookies on the cookie sheet into the freezer, SweetTate asked me, "Momma, is our oven broken?"  I laughed and reassured him that it was working fine.  We would bake them another day!
• The party landed on the 4th of July weekend, so we got to celebrate with family.  It has been years since we bought fireworks.  We are usually camping or it is too dry to even consider it, but this year we are enjoying lush green yards.  (Ok, lush may be pushing it, but for this part of the country it is lush!)  My brother, my cousins' husband, and SweetHeart went together and got fireworks.  They did a great job!  We had a blast!  I got to play with my camera a little and got some fun pictures of the kids with sparklers.  My brother got one of him writing out his name with a big circle around it.  It was cool!

• Cousins.  Enough said!

• Our favorite baseball team has been doing great!  Then we make plans to go to 2 games and they lose!  Both of them!  But we had a fun time at the hotel swimming pool and watched the fireworks after the game.

I think that catches you up!  Hope you are enjoying your summer too!

Redefining Grades

It is report card week.  (I can't believe there are only 12 more weeks of school!)  The kids both brought home very good grades.  SweetDoll had lots of E's and S's.  She told us that S was for super!  We thought that was pretty cute.  Thankfully there were no N's or U's, but we thought of some euphemisms for those too!  Humor at the educator's house!

When you are at a small school, you have to wait until the big boys are pretty much done with practice and games before the little dribblers can start their season.  So here we are ready to anticipate baseball and we are just beginning basketball.  Just another adjustment, and we can handle this one!  Here is SweetBoy in action!

SweetTate funny

SweetTate and SweetBoy are playing football on the wii. SweetTate said, "I want to be the tookers." He has said that for days and I have not had a clue what he was talking about. SweetBoy and I finally figured it out! When they are picking teams, SweetTate pointed to the team he wanted the "tookers." It is the Steelers. I finally got it! The stealers took something, so they are the tookers! haha

Funny story

Sunday after church we stopped at Sonic to pick up lunch. SweetHeart pulled out into the turning lane and drove there for a little bit (I wasn't scared yet) before he realized he needed to scoot on over to the right lane. He said, "Oh, I guess I could move over." While SweetTate was saying, "Dodge and weave! Dodge and weave!" He got that from the movie Cars. I'm still laughing today! Hope it brings you a smile!

"Photo Op"

This weekend SweetBoy had his first game. I think nerves got to him a little because he didn't find his swing to get a hit, but he made some good defensive plays for the team. And they won! Here he is playing catcher.
Sister had her second game and had a good game. They won too! (Not that it is about wins and losses at this stage. Most of the time they don't even know what the score is, but winning is fun!) Granny and Papa came down to see both of the kids in action.


Funny story...SweetDoll earned her baseball nickname. She soaks up the attention when everyone is yelling her name (she learned that from Big Brother!) and flashes that big "take my picture" smile at the crowd. And usually I don't disappoint and have the camera ready. I had taken several of her at bat, on base, and playing catcher. Then I put the camera away for a while, then thought to take a picture of Granny and SweetTate. (Papa is the guy standing to the left of the building out of the wind. Yes, it was COLD again!)

Then I was looking down at my camera. In the mean time, SweetDoll was chasing after a ball that was close to the fense right in front of us. She was posing reaching for the ball, because in her mind, I was waiting on the camera so I could take her picture. I had no idea what was going on until I noticed everyone laughing and Daddy telling her to get the ball and me to put the camera away. So she earned the nickname: PhotoOp. She doesn't appreciate it much, but it is fitting!

My name is Shelly and...

My name is Shelly, and I'm a scrap-aholic. Or obsessed with finishing a project, whichever way you want to look at it. I had several pages for my daughter's scrapbook done except for the journaling. Yesterday after school, I took them and my pens to the playground and journaled on the picnic table while my children played...for TWO hours! I know. I have a problem, but I got 10 pages finished and in the book over the last two days! In the book she is now 18 months old! I think I'm going to run out of pages before I run out of pictures, but that is a problem for another day.

Funny story...Let me preface this with this fact. If you haven't seen SweetDoll in a while (or ever), she is not very tall, even for her age. She and SweetTate are mistaken for twins at the grocery store all the time--they are three years apart! (He is on the taller side for his age but still.) So where some kids look older than they are, she definetly does not. Then to totally get the scene, SweetDoll has a very matter of fact attitude at times. Like "I'm 5 and am smarter than you." With the scene set, here is the funny story...SweetHeart takes her to the dentist the other day. She gets up in that big chair and the hygenist is making small talk and asks, "My goodness, how old are you? Are you 12?" SweetDoll looks her straight in the eye, furrows her brow and says, "Do I look 12?" That is so SweetDoll! We have seen those furrowed eyebrows from day one!

Early Text Messages

I must preface this with this fact...I am so not techno savvy. I have no idea how to send a text message! But here is the story. I was watching SweetTate play with a calculator the other day and remembered the day when we would try to write words with the numbers. Do you remember doing that? Then when I started working, I got a pager as part of the deal. It was nice. SweetHeart could page me when he had a minute, and if I was free, I could return his call. Sometimes he would just put in "777." That was just a "Hi, love you" message.

So one weekend, Mom and Dad were coming into town. I told her she could page me with "303" because you know, sideways that spells mom. When they arrived, Mom didn't remember the exact numbers I had said so she used the letters on the phone to spell mom. Well the page I received read "666". My first thought was Boy, I must have really ticked SweetHeart off this morning! But I was expecting Mom's page and soon figured it out. Now it would have come through clearly, but back in the day it was a good laugh! Happy texting!

The things they say!

My kids are notorious for saying silly things. And maybe it is just my sense of humor that finds them funny, but here is one of the latest...

SweetDoll was playing the boxing game on the Wii, and she was really into it--fists flying, feet moving, red cheeks. "Mom, I'm fighting like a prairie dog!" I didn't know that prairie dogs were known for their intense boxing skills! And at our house we have a running joke of school mascots that are just hard to picture. You know, it is easy to see the "fighting Tigers, " but the "fighting Zebras"? So if ever we are in a position to pick a school mascot, my vote might very well be...the prairie dogs!

Papa & Sweet Boy’s Concoction

I have been looking through picture albums for a project and came accross this story that makes me laugh every time I see it!

It was Mother’s Day. Not just any Mother’s Day—the day we had Sweet Doll’s Baby Dedication at church! So Granny and Papa came down, and all SweetHeart’s family were coming over to our house for lunch. I was trying to get as much prepared the night before as I could, so lunch for that big crowd would come together quick and smooth. Sweet Boy and Papa were chopping pecans for me to put in a salad. They finished the amount I needed, and Sweet Boy asked, “Mom, can I chop up some chips?”

“Sure. Why not,” I replied. I could see it in their eyes Sweet Boy and Papa had an experiment going! Being the scientist that he is, Papa kept track of all that went into their concoction. Sweet Boy thought it was pretty cool the way those four Sour Cream ‘n’ Onion Baked Lays Potato Chips ground up in the nut chopper. Then they added 6 pecans. They poured that mixture into one of the kid-sized Tuperware mixing bowls I used to play with and added lemonade until it was just the right consistency—150 ml according to Papa! Now you and I both know that is not an inviting combination, but to this almost 4-year-old it sounded like the most delicious treat that he wanted to share with everyone! The whole time they were mixing and adding a little more lemonade to make it just right, Sweet Boy kept talking about how he wanted Uncle R and Cousin C, especially, to taste it. And it was going to be great!

Then the taste testing moment arrived. Papa poured some of the juice into a small cup, and I got the camera ready for the reaction. Sweet Boy was oblivious to mine and Papa’s grins that were just waiting to laugh out loud as he took a sip. You could tell he wanted to sell it and say it was yummy! But then reality hit all those taste buds and the optimistic expression on his face changed to...

This is Yuck!

I promised you would laugh! Hope you have a good day!