Happy Birthday, To The Cowboy

Yesterday was The Cowboy's birthday. How many candles do you see? We had to dig ALL our left-over candles out of the junk drawer to get enough to put on his cake. He was a good sport and blew them all out in one breath. See, I'm 4 years younger than he is, so I get to tease him the whole time he's in a different decade than me. *evil grins*

Even though I tortured him about his birthday, I DID get him a nice present. This: I think I surprised him for once! He actually told me he didn't think I'd be "brave enough" to buy a chain saw.

Huh?

I have NO idea what that means.

Anyway, even though it was his birthday weekend, he was being all sweet and bought me these on Friday for no good reason:

And this on Saturday, because I loved it:

In my mind, a bouquet of "just because" roses and a speckled blue tin dishpan trumps a chainsaw any day of the week and twice on Sundays. Girls are SO much easier to buy for than Boys!

90 Percent?!

I SCORED A 90%

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How did this happen?! There was a time when I watched these movies so much with my kids that I could have easily spoken along with the dialog. Has it been so many years since my children wanted to watch a Disney cartoon every day that I have *gasp* forgotten the details of these movies? I should have sailed through this quiz with a 100%. They won't even tell me which questions I got wrong, though I think it was something to do with Aladdin. That one wasn't the girls' favorite, and Wheeler hasn't wanted to watch it in a very long time.

Well, the kids have moved on to more interesting things, like music, horses, dog training and rock collecting.

Stupid Disney quiz. How pathetic that I had to go back and redo the quiz until I found the 2 questions that I got wrong. Silly me! (It WAS an Aladdin question...AND a Little Mermaid question.)

Just for Fun:

In School Today:

Sometimes, you know you are doing something right!

The Zoo Keeper, telling whether verbs are past, present, or future:

"A woodpecker drilled these holes...Past."



"Wolves travel in packs...Present."



"Last year we studied flowers...Past."



"Jesus loves me....Past, Present, and Future!"





Other times, even when it sounds wrong, you know it's right:

The Horse Whisperer: "I wish I didn't have to do Algebra today. *sigh*"

Me: Okay, don't do it.

The Horse Whisperer: "REALLY?!" accompanied by a beaming face and near tears of joy

Of course, it will have to be caught up tomorrow, but sometimes a kid just needs an unexpected break.

Works for Me Wednesday

This isn't exactly a tip to make life easier for YOU, but it could make Thanksgiving nice for a couple of soldiers near you!

Last year we invited 3 soldiers from a nearby Army post to share our Thanksgiving meal with us. Thanksgiving for us is a Big Deal. The Cowboy builds a fire in an underground pit and cooks 2 or 3 turkeys along with a beef brisket or two.

There is always plenty of food and we are truly thankful for God's numerous blessings on our lives.

Right now you have be be pretty darn brave to join the military, not only during a war, but right before a Presidential election. The soldiers that came to share our meal last year were fresh out of boot camp and it was the first time any of them had been away from home for a holiday. They were all "country kids", and enjoyed coming to our little place in the boonies to celebrate Thanksgiving.

If you want to invite some soldiers, you have to act fast because they are already putting together the lists to match soldiers with families. I don't know how other military bases do it, but for ours we had to call the base chaplain. I couldn't find anything online about it this morning, but if you call the general information number in your phone book for the military base near you, someone will direct you to whom you need to talk to.

Last year was the first year we did it, and for sure it's going to be a yearly occurrence for us. They don't send one soldier to a house full of strangers by him/herself. Be prepared to take two. We offered a place for four since we cook such a mountain of food, but one of ours got sick at the last minute last year so we ended up with three. We sent a PILE of leftovers back for her though!

About a week before Thanksgiving they had a "meet and greet" on the fort. The families and soldiers gathered in the gym, where they had tables set up. Each family sat at a table, and the solders just came and sat with a family they liked the looks of. That's where we met the four that were going to come to us, and made arrangements to pick them up on Thanksgiving morning. Most of them don't have cars, so you have to be prepared to pick them up and take them home.

It's just a nice way to share a little bit of your bounty with someone who appreciates it. It's a little awkward at first, and be prepared to graciously accept being called "ma'am" every time you talk to them. Don't give them a hard time about it, okay? They are trained to be respectful, and it's not nice to tell them they make you feel old.

That's what we do. Check out a plethora of other WFMW tips at Rocks in my Dryer.

Gotta Love a Good Disaster Movie

Last night we watched The High and the Mighty with John Wayne. It was more story than special effects, and took place when people dressed up to fly. All these women in evening gowns. Can you imagine flying in an evening gown? All the way to San Francisco from Hawaii?! When the kids and I flew back from Hawaii, it took 5 1/2 hours on a jet. It was a LONG 5 1/2 hours. When this movie took place, they were flying on a propeller plane and it was going to take 13 hours and 16 minutes...and that was BEFORE one of the engines caught on fire and punctured one of the fuel tanks and they had to slow down to try and conserve fuel to get them as close to San Francisco as possible before they had to ditch into the ocean.

One of the things they did to save fuel was throw all the unnecessary weight out the door. No one whined one bit about throwing out all their luggage...well one woman was very sad about throwing her mink coat to the mercy of the Pacific, but she sucked it up and did it. Personally, if I were wearing a strapless evening gown and I knew within a few hours I was going to be floating around in a life boat at night (provided all went as planned), I would have hung onto that sucker. I mean, really, how much does a mink coat weigh?

It was so funny to see the difference in air travel in the 50s and our post 9-11 world. It wasn't just the dressing up part, though I imagine if you had asked any of those passengers to remove their shoes and submit to a full body pat down they would have slugged you.

EVERYONE smoked. On the plane, in the cockpit, on the flight line, in the airport... Ever notice in John Wayne movies, one of his signature moves is to light a cigarette, take two puffs then throw it in the dirt? (Bet he wouldn't do that at $5. a pack!) Well, when we started watching this movie, I thought, "He's on a plane...he can't take two puffs and throw it down." (Yeah, my mind goes through all kinds of things when I'm watching movies. I keep this inner dialog going that is highly entertaining to me, but I try not to say anything out loud and annoy my fellow viewers) BUT HE DID! On the PLANE! I actually laughed out loud and had to explain what was funny. The kids thought it was funny...they have noticed the two puff phenomenon too since we watch a LOT of John Wayne around here. The Cowboy just rolled his eyes.

A little boy, flying alone, had a TOY GUN! It didn't even have the little orange cap on the end of the barrel to indicate that it's a toy! He even *gasp* Pointed it at the pilot of the plane and pretended to SHOOT him! No one gave it a second thought.

Even MORE shocking, a passenger had a REAL GUN that he had decided to shoot another passenger with. The other passengers wrestled the gun away from him and told him to go cool off. He did, said he was sorry, and they gave him his gun back. The flight crew wasn't involved at all.

The men flirted shamelessly with the stewardess (not flight attendant) and she took it in stride, and even flirted back a bit. It was all in fun and not crass at all.

I guess one of the things that made it so funny is that I had just read this post from Crazy Aunt Purl about her "Mascara of Mass Destruction" and all the responses to it. Man, flying used to be FUN! Except for that whole evening gown thing. I STILL wouldn't want to fly for 13 hours in a girdle and heels in a cabin full of second-hand smoke.

What's Become of the Jack-o-Lantern...

I baked the pumpkin for over an hour at 350, but it never really got soft. It should still be edible, but I'm betting the consistency is weird. I think from now on, I'll make pie out of canned pumpkin and enjoy our "pumpkin lanterns" until they get shriveled and buggy.