What is a birthday?

 Once upon a time, a little girl once asked me-Mama, what is a birthday? And I answered that it was the day that God decided that you were ready to enter the world. It's funny how things change when you have a child. The yellow dandelions that I pulled vigorously from my flower beds became the most beautiful flowers in the world when someone with short wobbly legs brought me a handful.
Later, I would teach her how to blow the dandelion seeds into the wind and we'd watch them scatter to the wind.
Those seeds were like children-blowing in the wind-going to faraway places like Japan,California, Arizona-never knowing where they'd go-how far or where they'd settle down and take root.
Birthdays are celebrated with cakes, candles, and parties-but for me they will always be the day my life changed forever.

Engagement Party

Today we celebrate the engagement of Beth and Jody!
I hope that they have the wedding of their dreams and that their marriage is a very happy one.

Reba-forget "little sister"

Reba sings a song that says "Little sister don't miss when she aims her gun."
I want her to write me a modern version that says Dwight instead of little sister.
We have never been into the woods and have him come out and say "You should have seen the one I missed" or "the one that got away." IT  DOES NOT HAPPEN- EVER.
There are times when he doesn't see anything-you can't shoot anything if you don't see something(that's my story and I'm stickin' to it), but if he sees it-it's light's out.

He's either really lucky(of course he is-he has me) or really good(of course he is-he has me). Either way you look at it-I'm cleaning deer and it isn't even ten am.

Fall Favorites

So as I absent mindedly dusted, I kept trying to think about my favorite thing about fall. My most favorite thing-and it's really hard to come up with just one. I narrowed it down to ten:
1. the weather-not too hot and not too cold-and it you don't like it the next day will be totally different
2. the fall colors-the brilliant colors are amazing
3. hunting-not just animinellers-it's time to start christmas shoppin  in earnest
4.carmel apples
5. popcorn balls
6. Pumpkin everything-pumpkin bread, pumpkin pie, pumpkin donuts, pumpkin chai latte-feel like the guy with the shrimp in Forest Gump
7.late blooming flowers-my zinnas are still blooming, but pansies and mums are out too
8.Snuggle time-I'll spare you the details
9.the smell of the air-so crisp
10. and my most favorite-time to bring out the flannel pj's. Yeah-it's flannel pj time!

Saying "Yes" to the Dress

Today, Ashley, Lauren, Beth, and myself made the trip to Fort Smith to look at a dress that Beth has spent literally months chasing down. She's called everyone trying to find this particular dress and finally found a sweet lady in Fort Smith willing to help her find it. They located one in Europe-their sizes are a little different, but judging by Beth's measurements-it might work. It was the only one left and it was a long shot.So Beth paid the nonrefundable deposit and had it sent over. Weeks of travel and it finally arrived in the USA-and today we saw her in that dress.
I really wished I hadn't promised not to post pictures. She glowed in the dress and it fit her perfectly. There was never any question of saying "No" to this dress. It was made for her. Designed for her and destined to be.
The lady reminded Beth that a payment had to be paid before the end of the week-and like most young adults sometimes money doesn't come when it should-so Beth nodded and went to take the dress off. I couldn't stand the idea of leaving the dress behind-after we had come so far-after the dress had come so far.
Because I have the most wonderful husband in the entire world, he doesn't really mind if I extend myself a little bit on the old credit card-so I tried my best to smile when I told Beth to grab her dress when it was time to go. She started crying. Then I started crying, Lauren was crying. Ashley was crying. WTF-the store owner was crying.God help me when the wedding actually gets here.
P.S. someone else tried on some veils-and we may have more than one beautiful bride in the future.

Act of Congress...getting the cat spayed

Since early August, there's been a poster announcing a spay and neuter clinic in Newton County and since I have another young female cat-I called and called and left messages trying to make an appointment. I finally got through last Friday only to have them tell me that they were full and I should try in Harrison. Visions of kittens sprang to mind and so I went by the office in Harrison.
The first lady at the desk said they wouldn't be having one for months.What? Don't they realize cats can go into heat twice a year? The second lady told me that they would have one in October-the 7th, 8th, and 9th. Fine-sign her up. Oh no you can't do that until the designated day. When is it? Whenever they get the papers from the vet. No certain day-but it fills up quickly-this was on Friday. Monday, I overslept and didn't make it by their office-and still it was a week way.What were the chances that Monday they would have the papers? So I went by Tuesday-and found out that I should have come by Monday and that they were completely booked.
Vixie had 8 kittens each litter. Her daughter seems to be of the same build and I don't know two people that would take a kitten much less eight.
So I begged Lauren to call Newton County again and see if anyone cancelled. Wednesday was the last day of their clinic and maybe someone might cancell or forget.Fingers and toes crossed. They said have her there by eight am(found this out at 2 am), Great nothing like riding in a car with a crazed cat on four hours of sleep.
Success-she's spayed and I'm supposed to keep her in a quiet place away from other animals, but she went nuts when I attempted to separate her from her mother and brother again so she's sleeping on the back portch.