Pictures

I am trying to carry my camera around more.

The problem with shooting pictures is the next tortuous step (for me) in home photography.

It's the place where I sit in front of my computer for hours scanning, downloading, transferring and then sending all of my pictures to a folder somewhere in Nigeria.
Seriously.

Abby has shown me at least 100 times how to

do this "simple" thing.

She says that she's getting tired of showing me.

I just tell that she should understand because

I've shown her how to clean the kitchen more times than that

and she continues to forget the process.

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Below is the style show of the first "RocketDog day" at the

North Little Rock Cardiac Rehab department.

(Custom-created holiday by me)

Does anyone else have RocketDog shoes?

I think they are way cool!

Here are my daughter and her friends after an all nighter youth lock-in at church.

Can you tell which one is Abby?

She's the one yawning! (hee hee)

The do-nut in the foreground kinda made her blurry.

Here is what happens when a youth director finds a camera with special functions.



Oh friends....will you look at the size of my BURN PILE!!!!!




We decided to clean out the barn after decades of junking it up.
Literally.
Much of the junk in our barn was there when we
purchased the property,
and then we did a mighty fine job of adding to it.
Now,...let me clarify that not ALL of the stuff in this BURN PILE! was from the barn.
It's been building from yard work and storm damage in
several of our family's yard.

It was getting so big that I told Ralph we had better take care
of the BURN PILE! soon
or the fire would just get way too big (not really).

So.
To get the BURN PILE! started we added a little "impetuous".
For some reason, that's what my daddy called diesel fuel.
(Now don't you worry........we never never never use gasoline.)



Add a match.....


and you can see that we chose a good day to care
of the BURN PILE! because
the smoke is pretty much going straight up.
(that means there's "no wind")



I know you're jealous.
You wish you had a BURN PILE! this big.

Ralph calls Sophie (below) his "hairy daughter".
She wore herself out on the barn cleaning/BURN PILE! day.



But when you clean out a barn,..you find all kinds of cool things.

Like my Aunt Mildred's stove. Oh my my that woman could cook!!

I guess it got put in the barn in the 70's and the people who owned the

place for the next 20 years never moved it.
We actually have another stove in the barn from the 40's(?).

We haven't uncovered it yet, but I saw the top of it the other day!



These skeleton keys were raked up from the back of one of the compartments.

Can't you just imagine some man all frustrated

and saying "Hon? Where did you put my keys?"

Spring Inventory

Right now I am:
Listening to 7 teenage girls giggle and scream in my living room. There is a short list of things which make teenage girls giggle and scream:
Everything.
(Bless Abby's heart,..her birthday is the day before the anniversary of Jae's death. We try hard to not the two get mixed up. This year, Abby chose to celebrate it last night with a sleepover.)


I also am:
nursing a BIG abrasion on my nose and forehead. As I climbed a fence and tried to jump off, my big foot hung on the top strand of barb wire and I fell and scooted for about 18 inches on my face. I was very glad there were no witnesses.

I have my mom's knack for spectacular falls.

A song which has captured my attention is:
I Bowed On My Knees And Cried Holy sung by Michael English and the Gaither Vocal Band. It is always a great thing to imagine the happenings of Heaven and that song gives a lot of details for the imagination.

A Great Story:
is the life-testimony of Michael English. He was artist of the year a few years ago and made some terrible choices which cost him his family, his awards, his career and his testimony. In the years that followed, the Christian world pretty much forsook him. His next music CD gives credit to Bill Gaither for sticking with him through the dark days.
I wanna be like Bill.

The Passage of Scripture Which Has Caught My Attention Is:
Genesis 32. The "Angels of God" came out to meet Jacob.
Why?
I don't know. It doesn't say.
Then, a few verses later, God decides to wrestle with Jacob in the middle of the night.
Why?
To be blessed?
To make him admit he was a trickster?

God wrestles?

That'll make a lot of rednecks happy.

I'm confused
The Russell's dogs never want to stay home.
Everyone else has a dog which loves to lay on their porch. Not us. Our dogs are bound and determined to escape us.
Sophie has been hit by a car again as she ran at breakneck speed out our front door. I'm hoping she lives.

I'm relieved
Casey's home safe and sound. She is still exhausted but had a fantastic time. She is hopeful that she gets the job (white water river guide).

I'm procrastinating:
Cleaning our "office". You know how it is when a room is completely overrun by papers, books, music, supplies, and whatever else can be thrown in there. I have to tackle it soon because all of our tax stuff is buried in there!

I am looking forward to:
This weekend at Branson/Silver Dollar City. It's "Young Christian's Weekend" and I, of course, am very young.

I'm excited about:
Entering a writing contest. My niece Aundra, (also a writer) gave me a gift subscription to Writer's Digest and the first issue was all about a writing contest!
I think I will re-work some of the posts I have done on this blog......
Got any suggestions as to which one I should submit?

I'm discouraged about:
Hhmmmm,..not much at all.
Sophie I guess.

You may want to know
that I am going to burn our front field Tuesday. I've been greatly amused by the number of people who laugh at my burning desires (hee hee).
However,..everyone agrees that it is/would be fun,...so,......
Anyone who wants to burn with me can just show up at my house mid-morning.
Hopefully the wind won't be too stiff,..but if it is,...it'll just be that much more exciting!
BYOR (bring your own rake)

Oh Boy!

I wonder if the Arkansas Highway Department needs my assistance?

Mama says.....

I've heard it said "Never post something you don't want your mother to read".

Well, my mom called me this morning to fuss at me about labeling my family "pyromaniacs".

She is concerned that if I have a documented history of starting and enjoying fires, that insurance may not pay in the event we were to have a house fire.

She also told me that I should be careful. There may be a crazy person who reads my blog and might set my house on fire thinking I'd enjoy watching it.
I, of course, told her that I had no crazy readers.
(Well,....not like she means anyway.)
(Hee Hee)

So.
Let me make myself clear.
(ahem)
Other than the death and injury of those I love, there is nothing I fear more than a fire in my home. If I were to lose my photos and videos of Jae Lynn, you can sure 'nuff put me in the nuthouse. If you've read my blog for the past few months, I have a deep sympathy for those (like my parents-in-laws) who have lost their home from fire. It's so incredibly destructive. In fact, we called the fire off last Saturday because the risk was too great.
We are safe or we do not burn.
Period.

And another thing,....We only burn things that are supposed to be burned. Stuff like hay fields, leaves, twigs and dead tree limbs, brairpatches, trash, tires, stumps,..etc.

I joke about us all being pyros, but it really ain't so.
We simply enjoy, love, relish, anticipate, get high off of, get euphoric over and are addicted to fire.
(Just kidding mom!)

Unusual Family (Outing)

What does a family of Pyromaniacs do when one suggests burning something?

We have a long history of being "firebugs".

Quirky I know, but to us,...

Fire + rake = therapy.

Do you recall reading on my list of New Year's Resolutions that I was going to do something every week which scared me?

Last night, this was our hayfield (on fire).

There were 11 of us keeping it "in control".

We burned for 3 straight hours and it was wonderful!

We also worked up a blazing appetite so we all tramped our stinky sooty selves into the "Smokin Buns Bar-B-Q" restaurant right down the road. We were so proud!

In spite of three hours of fire, we only burned about a third of what we needed to do. So we all gathered back down there again this morning with our rakes, matches and adrenaline.

We lit it up and it began to spread faster than we felt like we could "control".

(I singed my new hair-cut. My new hairspray attracts fire I guess. Dang it.)

The wind was just a bit too stiff, so we stomped the fire out and slouched back to our homes all disappointed.

But the good news?

We are going to try again next Saturday.

Jae's Hurts, My hurts

Ambushed!
Where do feelings like this come from?
Emotionally slammed.

Like July 4th, I was just sitting there, enjoying a patriotic parade in Texas, and a sweet high school cheerleader team from Arlington performed a stunt directly in front of where we sat. They were wonderful and beautiful and had no idea how much pain their impromptu performance brought my way.
Then there's the time a few days ago when I had a rough day at work and decided to run by the cemetery on the way home. By the time I reached Jae's grave, I was sobbing and crawling on my hands and knees,..looking quite insane, I'm sure.
(Note to self: sometimes stress is still handled poorly)

An hour or so ago, Ralph and I raked out a small mountain of leaves from inside our barn. The pile was much too big to move so I decided to burn them right there near the edge of the barn. Just as the fire reached about 120 feet high, I asked him if there was anything priceless inside the barn.

"Nope" he calmly said from the tailgate of our truck.
"All the priceless things to me are not in the barn. You, Casey and Abby are here and Jae's in Heaven. Nothing in the barn matters."

My heart is heavy tonight. I am doing my best to hold back a hissy-fit. I have no idea why and don't really care to figure it out. It just is.

I made up Jae's bed 'cause Abby slept in it last night. Put blankey and mousey on the pillow and looked around at all her stuff. The "gone fishin" picture she drew for us before she walked out the door the last time. Her bulletin board still covered with Christmas decorations and Lauren's, Sam's and Kyle's funeral programs. I have put up some pictures of her around the walls.

Another thing that hangs on her wall is a list of "hurts". It was created by her just a few weeks before her accident.

You see, once Jae became a cheerleader, it seemed that she was forever pulling this tendon, or spraining that joint. There was a constant ache in her back and pain in her head. Tumbling and flying left her bruised and sore almost every single day.

One day, exasperated with the whining, I made her do what my nursing students were required to do for their patients.
"Jae Lynn! Make a list of your problems!
Label them acute or chronic!
And then prioritize them in order of severity!"

Oh man! You should have seen her light up as the idea of expressing herself in such a creative way.
Here is her list exactly as she wrote it:

My Hurts
1-My thumb (acute
2-My lower back (but only in the morning) (chronic)
7-My knee
4-My shoulder muscles between my shoulders
3-My hips (they constantly pop in & out & sometimes get stuck in between & get bruised)
9-Occasionally I get HORRIBLE headaches!
8-my ankle will never lock out. It rolls & hurts (chronic)
5-my wrists pop alot (chronic)

The list is now history.
There are no more hurts for Jae Lynn tonight.
I, however, will never recover from having part of my soul torn away.
The joy in my life is mixed with discontent.
My trust in God is stronger than ever, but,....
But.
Every single day contains the wish that things were different.


To all my fellow pyro-maniacs our there,..I know you are ashamed of me. I burned the leaves with a water hose nearby.
What a weenie.