Shootin' Horses Ain't Easy!

You have them lined up in your sites,

they move,

they make funny faces.

They'll be standing pretty,

they spy you

and come looking for a treat

while looking as pretty as an ole plow horse.

They know you're gonna shoot!

Sometimes they even shake like a dog.

But it's hard to get a shot

when there're chestnuts on the ground.

You think you have a clean shot,

then someone moves an inch

and you end up with a miss.

Even climbing high to shoot doesn't help.

They know you're out to get 'em.

Finally, you get lucky...

and get a fair shot.

This is too much work for me!

Marriage Is...

After yesterday's post, I want to clarify something...my hubby and I are very happy.  No harm was ever intended or thought about during this previously posted incident. It was just another funny story from the book of our life together.

Our marriage has laughter, love and friendship and I believe those are important elements or I never would have lasted through thirty-eight years!

Yes, Hubby has thrown me from a moving vehicle, placed duct tape in my underwear, oiled the commode ring, placed exploding fireworks in the kitchen cabinet and tied my pants legs in knots while I shower.  BUT, I have also dealt out as good as I got.  I have thrown rotten eggs in close proximity to him, hidden snakes in his truck, placed panties in his sandwiches, put Ambesol in his Carmex and Ben Gay in his pillow case.

Hubby brings me wild flowers and pretty rocks and understands my obsessiveness with animals.  I understand his dreams.  We tolerate and are entertained by my our differences.  We are an enduring match...we are both too stubborn to give up.

One year during our anniversary Hubby said,  After all these years, I can say I have never been bored!  To me that was the greatest compliment I have ever received.

All in all, we are the perfect couple, sometimes...no one is a perfect couple all the time.  It is the ability to work through those imperfections with love, laughter and understanding that has made ours a fantastic lifetime.

The Day My Husband Almost Killed Me

Well, obviously, the attempt failed but the story cries to be told.  It was many, many years ago on a dark and dreary night...just had to say that part, but it was dark.

We were attending a local rodeo, before the usage of cell phones and the good sense of having emergency vehicles on scene.  They always save the best and the most dangerous event for last...bull riding.

No, I wasn't riding, but someone with worse luck than me was.  Needless to say, the rider didn't make it to his eight minutes and got a bull's foot to the head.  No doctors were there but my friend, a nurse, tended the injured while she directed Hubby to go make a call for an ambulance.

We were in our old Blazer, the girls in the back, yes; before the car seat/seat belt law, too.  Somehow Hubby had made a plan to drop me off at our road to call as he headed to town to help the emergency services.

He pulled off the side of the road to let me out and as I open the door, he changed his mind, without informing me.  I have one leg out on the highway's edge as he takes his swift left turn to our house.  I grab the arm rest, and yell for him to stop, he can't hear, the children are screaming because they know I am dragging OUTSIDE the vehicle.  My behind and right leg are bouncing on the pavement, I look down, my legs are headed for underneath the rear tires and there is a car behind us.

I make two decisions very quickly...I did not want to lose my legs nor did I want the people behind to see me. In a fraction of a second, I knew what I had to do...drop before my legs were crushed...roll away from the vehicle and stand  up so on one would know what happened.

I did it!!!  I was standing nonchalantly on the side of the highway when the vehicle passed me.  Meanwhile, back in the Blazer, Hubby has discovered what has happened and is telling the girls, Shut up, I have killed your mother!!!

Turning back to check on me, he offers me a ride to the house, now after this event there is no way this guy is driving me anywhere!!!  I walk to the house about three-quarters of a block...and then I look at myself.

My  best jeans are torn, those fine jeans I had poured my trim, curvaceous body (remember, this WAS years ago) into before the rodeo.  They were now ripped down my right side where the pavement had worn them off, my palms and knees were ripped, gouged, gravel embedded and bleeding where I had dropped to save myself.

I began to shake all over with the shock of my injuries, Melissa brought me sweet tea, the cure-all at my house, and I just sat on the porch, not able to move another step.

My friend stopped by to check on me after the injured rider was transported.  She said, Den told me he threw you out of the truck and I should check on you.  Then she saw me clearly!  She said, OMG, he really did, I  thought he just dropped you off at the house.

She tried to get me to go to the hospital but I didn't.  The bull rider was okay and that was what mattered.

And that, my dear friends, if you have lasted through my long-winded story, is how my husband tried to kill me...and almost thirty years later, I am still pissed about my jeans!!!!

Things I Have Learned This Past Week...

We were blessed with green tomatoes.

Sometimes the blurry pictures are the best.

There are many ways to carve a pumpkin.

Sometimes dogs and children look alike.

Look at those mouths!

Football is scary without padding,

heck, it's scary with padding!

Sometimes simple colors are the most beautiful.

and Mother Nature always has something to share,

if you just look.

Seining Fish...

When I was a child, seining the pond was a annual event as the water grew low from the dry weather.  Low water, less oxygen...removing some fish assured the survival of the whole.

Our seine was about fifteen feet long with weights on the bottom and two poles at each end.  One person stood on the bank as the other waded out, set the seine and began to walk to the bank with the net on the bottom.  I was always the lucky one, red clay mud sucked at my feet and caused me to stumble but I held my pole straight and steady as I walked that seine to the bank.

A large bass kept jumping the net and we walked the seine again and again. We caught several catfish, some large perch and some small bass, plenty for supper and some for the freezer.

I was soaked from head to toe, mud all over me but we tried one more time. During the last sweep, there was no jumping fish, maybe he was worn out!  There was a chance, a small chance, Big Bass was in the net.

Struggling through the mud at the edge, I fell but spotted the giant bass flopping to reenter the deeper water.  No way was he escaping this time!

I dived toward the bass in the shallow, covering him with my body until I could get a good grip.  The fins stuck my stomach as I worked to get a hold.

Finally, triumphantly, I stand, totally mud-covered with a thumb in his gills and hold him high above my head while whooping at the top of my voice!

The sun shined bright as Daddy smiled.

Cousins

Fourteen and seven did home work together.  Jakes adds one plus one plus one and plays at word problems while Andrew offers to tell Jake about protons and electrons.

They begin dicussing the heat of chili peppers versus the Jalapenos.

Jake has finished his reading assignment.  I brag on his reading, while helping him sound his words. Andrew says, Nana, you would make a great kindergarten teacher...NEVER in your wildest dreams, Andrew! 

I could never be a teacher but I can be a grandmother, hoping the little things I do make a difference, maybe help my grandsons through our interactions.

As Andrew continues writing his definitions, Jake sits ON the table, admiring his older cousin.

Once again the conversation returns to the heat of peppers.

The Last...

roses