Sweets

My husband is so happy for a bulk food store so close to work

on those days when all he really wants in life is a little sugar.

Just Another Day, Another Mom?

Perhaps it was one of those made up statistics, but I have been told by some wise radio announcer that 154 million Mother's Day cards are sold every year. I would love to tell you that many, many more "Thinking of You, Mom" cards are sold throughout the year, but since I'm such a skeptic I'm thinking that is not the case.

For some reason I have this problem... I can't bear to think of getting a gift at Christmas time- because someone thinks they are required to give it to me, or flowers on Valentine's day- because my man might feel obligated to (not to worry- he doesn't do anything out of obligation :) ), or (if I was a mom) a mother's day card because the whole world is doing it. If you are thinking "She just can't be ok with holidays", well then maybe you're right. I'm a little weird in that way!

Still, knowing that the day was coming up, made me start thinking about moms, my mom, and the world which is full of moms. My thoughts go to a Sunday morning church service on Mother's Day when all the mothers are asked to stand. It is done to show honor, just as it is done to honor veterans on Veteran's Day.

 I find it awkward. Although I have never been a mother, I think mostly about women who can't have a child- and who want to be a mother. Would this not be a sad reminder that you are not able to bear children like the other 95% of other women out there? What about the lady who has had miscarriages and is not able to carry a baby to full term? It would be awkward for her to stand because in the eyes of all the people around her, she is not a mother yet. In God's eyes, she is a mother. She just didn't get to invest as much of her life in them as most other mothers do.


Despite my negative thoughts of choosing a day to love your mom more than other days in the year, yes, I still did call my mom. :)

 My mom and I have a lot in common.

We both are the type to put all our cake ingredients in a slightly too small bowl and turn the mixer on. Before the explosion even happens, we would be telling ourselves that this is a bad idea. Then a split second later, when there are milk splatters and a fine dust of flour and cocoa powder over the whole counter, we will tell ourselves that that was really dumb.

We are both a complete picture of coordination and confidence behind the wheel of any vehicle. Our amazing driving skills have netted us mostly just an excellent reputation- one that is so great that we get to be the reason for a lot of jokes.

Both of us seem to be able to say what we think, and often before we have thought that perhaps we should not say it!

Neither of us are photogenic.

We both seem to have this problem with waiting. We are horribly impatient.

And we both get quite grouchy when we're tired. Not to mention we both get freezing cold when we get tired too, a trait that apparently most other folks do not have?!

The differences between my mom and I include the fact that:

Mom loves borrowing other people's kids. She loves to give other mothers a break and she loves to dote on little kids. She would take on what seemed to be vast numbers of them and I would quickly disappear for the day. When I'd reappear for food, I would find her and my sister busily washing kids up, corralling kids, and playing with kids. See, as most anyone who ever had me babysit could attest to, children are not much my thing. Mostly my method of childcare was "Kids, sit on the floor and put these puzzles together. If you're hungry, there's a bag of apples in the kitchen. I'm going upstairs to clean. Hope you don't kill yourselves down here."

It really was nice of her to like me so well. She got me from that little state of life to who I am now- but it took a lot of listening to me. Listening to me tell her about all my scrapes, scratches and wounds. Listening to me telling her every. single.detail of the books I read. Listening to me tell her all my theories of life. And finally listening to me go on and on about a guy whom I was pretty sure that I loved. And while we've had our moments, she has been a hero and has put up with a lot on my account!

I am privileged to have a mom who truly cared about me and about who I would become as an adult. She always told me that she didn't just want me to do as well as her. She wanted me to do better. She has invested her life in us kids and I'm thankful to call her my mom!

If at first you don't succeed, do it the way your mother told you to.
-- Author Unknown

A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie.
-- Tenneva Jordan

Everybody wants to save the earth; nobody wants to help Mom with the dishes.-- P.J. O'Rourke

A Jeep and a Pie

Last week Blake had the opportunity to help the neighbor kid change the transmission in his jeep. Our vehicle lifts make doing a job like that much simpler!

They were very appreciative and his mom wanted to make us a meal, as a thank you, on Sunday evening. It probably took more time out of her day to make us the meal than it did for the transmission to get changed here, but late Sunday afternoon when we both woke from a nap, hungry and thinking about food, the door bell rang and she delivered us a lovely meal. Talk about service! :)

The blackberry pie was scrumptious!

I was reminded: Never grow weary of doing good (Gal. 6:9) and be intentional about saying thank you. It really can actually be a blessing to someone!

Truck Pulls

Two years ago I went to my first truck pull and secretly I was glad that we were late. We went to a few more truck pulls that summer and I really despised them. To me they were just an extension of work and they bored me horribly!

Now knowing a lot more people who are also at the truck pulls and understanding what is happening a little better, combined with prayer that I would learn to love what my husband does, I literally count down the days!

Saturday was the pull at the local fairgrounds. All week I reminded Blake that we had a date on Saturday. He was excited too and locked up the shop at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday. The day was beautiful and warm so I forgot our sweatshirts- a fact which I really started regretting around 8 o'clock!

The dyno was first. A couple of friends put their trucks on the dyno to see how much horsepower they were putting out.
This one did 323 HP.

This one: 525 HP

(This picture was previously taken. :) )

Tractor pulls had been going all day but we began watching about the time the gas trucks started. I'm not a big fan of gas truck pulls because they are super loud and really not that fast or spectacular. There was one that I liked a lot because the front wheels came of the track as it pulled.

A few of our customers decided to pull. And lots of other people pulled. There were 40 trucks just in the work stock class!

Blake tells people that smoke does not always equal power, but there was an awful lot of smoke. :)

 The 2.6 class is a bit more impressive.

It got dark and we started to get quite cold.

In fact I got so cold that when a friend offered to get his jacket out of his truck, I took him up on the offer. He warned me that it was camouflage. I guess folks know what I think of hunting! I was too cold to care though and it made the rest of the evening much warmer!

 We had a blast!

The Alphabet

There is a problem that wise people who have lived life before me have already noticed. In fact, it was such a problem, that some wise people created an international solution in 1927.

Communication involving the alphabet can be confusing if the speaker is not in visible contact with the hearer. It can even be dangerous because sometimes simple letters leave people's lives at stake. The Radio Controller at an airport radios something about B1, the pilot hears D1... and such.

Telephone communication is challenging for me mostly when I am reading VIN numbers and tracking numbers. I always feel frustrated because I can't think of a word to match the letter fast enough to read it smoothly. I see a V and say "V, umm... as in verse" and I'm thinking well that should get the message across that it's not B as in boy.

Also referred to as the international radiotelephony spelling alphabet, the Nato Phonetic Spelling Alphabet is internationally recognized for oral communication. I decided I'd better learn it. :)

A= Alpha
B= Bravo
C= Charlie
D= Delta
E= Echo
F= Foxtrot
G= Golf
H= Hotel
I= India
J= Juliett
K= Kilo
L= Lima
M= Mike
N= November
O= Oscar
P= Papa
Q= Quebec
R= Romeo
S= Sierra
T= Tango
U= Uniform
V= Victor
W= Whiskey
X= X-ray
Y= Yankee
Z= Zulu

I found several of these words interesting as they seem hard to understand and hear or maybe they just seem to be strange words to me. Apparently as the years have passed, some of the words have changed. For example, "Mike" has always stood for "M", yet "P" has been Pup, Preparatory, Prep, and Peter, and finally Papa.

As I read a bit more, I found a simpler yet not internationally recognized option.

A= America
B= Banana
C= China
D= Dog
E= Elephant
F= Flower
G= Golf
H= Hotel
I= India
J= Jamaica
K= Kilo
L= Lima
M= Mars
N= New York
O= Orange
P= Prince
Q= Quebec
R= Radio
S= Sunday
T= Tiger
U= USA
V= Venus
W= Water
X= X-ray
Y= Yellow
Z= Zebra

So, I decided to learn them both; I will have two words for each letter. If they are memorized in my head, then when I need to order a transmission for a truck and must read the VIN over the phone, my thinker can have two options in there to think of!

Us- and Others

Sundays are usually slow and lazy for us. Blake gets bored and I enjoy getting to spend time with him when he's not all greasy. :) Some Sundays Blake's siblings show up because, like us, they too are bored.

Maria walks in and sometimes asks for the ice cream and sometimes just helps herself, but she always eats it. (Ice cream is a staple at our house.) The other girls then are polite and eat some too. Logan just entertains us.

This Sunday was different though. We dragged the guys out for a bit of a photo shoot- they weren't really thrilled, so as we started walking, they grabbed the two bikes in the garage. Shannah began adjusting her camera settings and then snap! Two amazing things happened at the same moment:

 Yep, the camera clicked at the same moment that Logan's brakes clicked because his front tire was too close to Blake's back tire. So we stood there and laughed for a while since, after all, no one got hurt!

I begged Blake to pose with me for a picture and Logan thought that was funny, at least I'm guessing from the look on his face. I told him - Blake, not Logan- that I knew he really wanted to pose with a cute girl like me.

He smirked but then obliged. And instead of posing just with me, he had to pose with several cute girls. Look how happy he looks! *wink*

 And then I heard that there was a dead cat in the river so I was studying the river (yes, you guessed it- I was trying to spot the thing!) while everyone else started to walk away and then my friend came riding up.

I love that he got off his bike to stand beside me, even though I think he missed the memo to smile!

We went to take a rest on the chiropractor's door step, and Shannah's camera came back out.

Although he looks grouchy, we did get him to smile, just a tad.

Do the dead flowers remind you of anything other than Miranda Lambert's song?!

Our relaxing time was over and we moved on. We spotted this old building out behind another building and we girls contemplated whether it would be considered trespassing to go over and take pictures beside it. Maria decided that Dad knew the owner of the land so it would be ok.

When we got close to it though, we realized the whole building was covered in poison ivy, with the leaves just beginning to grow. We all look slightly cautious about how close we got. :)

 There was an old car inside and I so badly wanted to get in there somehow- despite the poison ivy!- and get a picture of my man peering in the window at me. It would be classic because I would be smiling and he would be saying "Get out of there! You are trespassing!" He and Logan hadn't even ridden their bikes back to this building with us though, and so I called him and encouraged him to come over. He very happily said "No thanks" and stayed out on the road because, as he said, he wasn't going to trespass with us.

So we left the old building and kept on walking. :)

We saw this building on a side road and decided to take a picture, using Shannah's tripod. I believe this building was part of the old railroad station, and this would have been the back side of the building back in the day.
Logan and Blake were having trouble concentrating on the camera though. Blake wanted to be riding his bike; Logan felt a great need to reach the boarded window above. He tried extra hard, but was greatly bothering Blake so he stopped.

We found a nice grassy spot to rest some more. Of course, more pictures were taken. I told Blake to say really sweet things to me so that the picture would be more romantical. (That's a word, right?!)

So after he had stuck out his tongue for a while, he started whispering quiet insults, which is what he always does when we're getting pictures together. That makes me laugh and then we get good pictures. :)

In case you couldn't figure it out, I love hanging out with this guy!

Thank you Shannah for taking great pictures and for the rest of you who hung out with us for the afternoon. We enjoyed ourselves!