Pickups, Horses and Training

Isn't it nice how one little thank you can make all your hard work pay off? Well that plus having relatively obedient children. The other day while Stephen and I were in town I was going to stay in the pickup and feed Kimber while he and Tyrel went into AutoZone. (Shhhh, don't tell Mom, she works at Oreilly's) Anyways since Tyrel was sitting behind me and Kimber behind Stephen he was going to her her out and hand her to me and I got Tyrel out so he could go with Daddy.

I got out and unfastened Tyrel from his carseat, set him on the ground, and told him to go stand at the front of the pickup on the sidewalk. Then I got back in the pickup and didn't think twice about it. Stephen handed me Kimber, glanced out the windshield at Ty and said "Thank You". I just looked at him and said it was no problem, he was on my side I didn't mind getting him out at all. He said "No, for training our kids so well."

I looked out at Tyrel and was indeed thankful myself. I mean, how many 2 1/2 year olds can you tell to go stand still on the sidewalk and then not even have to think they may run off across the parking lot. I told him what to do, and he obeyed.

This is certainly not because he is a compliant child by nature. Tyrel is about at stubborn as they come,(His name even means stubborn. Really) and has taken LOTS of HARD training. But it is paying off. I often just see the things that need work still and don't notice all that we have accomplished. So it was nice to have a perspective change also.

Anyways, on to other matters.

My brother Tommy purchased him a pickup. Yay Tommy! It is a Ford Ranger. He really wanted an F150 but this met all his other criteria and was a great deal. He wanted a Ford, 5 speed, under 150K miles, for under $4000 dollars. Well he got it with money to spare.

He even has some of that money to spare after purchasing a secondary form of transportation. Horses. Yes. 2 of them, with saddles. He is going to give/sell me the dun which is 12 years old and already a gentle riding horse. And he will keep the 3 year old green broke sorrell. They are both mares. The old cowboy we bought them from is going to help him train his horse also. He is a really good friend of ours, which is one reason we got such a good deal on 2 horses and saddles.  I names "mine" Riata. Stephen and I have a funny story about that name. See a riata is a long, leather, mexican kind of rope. (I think, if I'm wrong Stephen will correct me and I'll change it.)

Well anyways, when we were going to one of the local cowboy churches one time not long after we were married, we were standing in the back row singing during praise and worship. In the middle of a song Stephen looked kind of excited as he tried to see someone/something at the front of the church. I asked him what he was looking at and he whispered "That's Arianna!" I had never seen him so excited to see a girl before and it raised my jealousy hackles a bit. I tried seeing if this Arianna was our age, pretty, etc. While asking him "So who is Arianna?" He said don't worry about it, I'll tell you later. That got the hackles up even more. "No, who is Arianna?" He laughed and said "Do you see that leather rope hanging from the cross at the front of the church?" "Well yes, but WHO is Arianna?" "Well that rope is a riata". OHHH okay. That's cool, you'll have to tell me about them later.

And all was well. The End.

A Title :)

Not sure why some of the pictures are scrunched up and weird.

Not a lot really. I have some pictures from a week or so ago, but nothing recent. It has really greened up around here since then. Even the mesquites are greening up, and they are always the last thing. I love the spring, except for one thing. Storms. I have a love/dislike relationship with storms. They are awesome and beautiful to watch. But they can get pretty severe here in West Texas. I sit up at night when we have a chance of storms praying and reminding myself that God has not given us a spirit of fear but a sound mind. Then the wind starts blowing harder and I can just see tornadoes ripping everything apart. Then I move our babies into our bed where I can keep my arms and eyes on them. All the while my husband snores away. Until I wake him to say I am going over to his parents to check the radar. If it looks bad on there I can sometimes convince him to go with me to his parents house for the night. A real house, that doesn't shake in the wind. It doesn't help that a few years ago our roof blew off of our trailer. Twice. Within a month. Once while we were in bed asleep. Well, I wasn't asleep, but he was. It was rather scarey. And so I pray and pace and pray and listen to the radio and pray and check the radar and pray.And then feel silly in the morning when everything is fine.  But really I do love to watch storms and would love to see a tornado from a safe distance. Hmmm, I hadn't gotten on here to ramble about storms.

So here are some somewhat recent pictures.

Sunset over the big house (Stephen's Parents)

Mud on her face from Mama watering the garden.

Towels blowing in the wind, and some already blown off.

Walking the Concho River. Our favorite way to waste time in town without spending money. That is not the river, but a drainage ditch or something near it.

Crossing the river.

Looking down at the ducks.

Bran.

Playing at the park by the river.

Peek a boo Kimber.

Wallowing on the bed before baths.

Pictures....Hmm. I think I have a lot of posts titled that.

Why is it that I seem to get really cute pictures of one child, and not the other at any given camera happy moment? I don't have many (if any) good ones of Tyrel for this post.

Here is Kimber Ann sitting on her Papa' s lap.

Aww, She doesn't look so happy in this one. But cute nontheless.

And here will be several pictures of Kimber and I. Because I can. Hi Stephen. Is that a good orange?

Would ya look at those chunky legs?

Oh look, Kimber is looking! Hi sweet girl. Hmm. What is with me having my hair in pigtails everytime I take pictures of her and I together?

I have to post this one because Stephen took it. He hardly ever takes pictures. I did have to tease him about centering our heads in the very middle of the picture. So in the next one he cut our heads off.

Ever wondered what my kitchen looks like. That's it behind MN and Kimber.

Here she is helping me plant the garden. Or at least being cute watching.

Oh look, here is one with Tyrel. And he really did help with the garden. Hi Ty'ger.

Since I don't have many pictures of Tyrel, I do have some cute things he has said lately.

Such as right after I got my hair cut, I was showing him the ponytail that got cut off and he said "Mama's hair break?"

A few days after my parents left after visiting me, as I was tucking Tyrel into bed he asked me "Umpa comin' to see me tomorrow?" I told him no, Grumpa was not coming tomorrow, and that I was sorry and he sleepily relpied. "Oh ok, on Monday." I told him we'd call Grumpa and ask, but I doubted it since he lives so far away.

And I KNOW there are several others I wanted to post, but they seem to be eluding me at the current moment.

Wrestling with my Pride

Sunday when I got to church I saw that my good friend Patty had cut her hair off pretty short.  (Well it is about shoulder length.) I do not like short hair on girls. I told myself that she gave me new resolve to never cut my hair. It looked okay, I just always think long hair looks better on a girl. Then she told me she had cut it off for Locks of Love.

I spent the next few days mulling over how much I love my hair long. My husband loves my hair long. And to be honest, I didn't want my sister in law to have longer hair than me. In other words. I was proud of it. Then I got to thinking that I can regrow my hair. The people they use the donated hair for don't have that option. I should be grateful to have that choice, and that I am in  health. And so, I got my husband's blessing, swallowed my pride, and went to get it cut today. The shortest length they accept is 10 inches. I was going to have 10 to 12 cut off. The lady that cut it can't measure I suppose. I measured the cut off hair when I got home. A little over 16 inches! Oh well it will grow back. I hope they put it to good use. I don't fry my hair or use hairspray or anything, so it is very healthy.

Five Months

Okay, So I have skipped 2 or 3 months. I was a little better at remembering to post every month with Tyrel.

Kimber is growing so fast! She can now roll over both ways. But mostly from her back to her tummy. She will scooch all the way across the bed to me. I have to remember not so set her on the couch or bed while I do something anymore. She rolled off of the couch once. I also cannot set her in her bumbo so she can watch me wash dishes or make bread or something. She can lean waaaaaaay over and I am afraid she will tumble it off the countertop. She is sitting up pretty well if she has something behind her to lean on when she gets tired. She does still slump over a good bit though.

It amazes me how I can see personality differences in her and Tyrel already.

She does not eat nearly as often as he did as a baby. (Well I guess he still does eat all day long) But she is just a chubby as he was. She will sleep for longer periods of time at night than he did. (well he still does not sleep through the night most nights.)

One way she is a lot like Tyrel is that they have both been very "easy" babies. They neither fussed much. They are generally happy and talkative.

She and Tyrel love each other so much. Tyrel is a little rough with her, but I don't think he intends to hurt her. He just likes to play, and gets too rough with her arms or legs.

Well that is all I can think of for the moment./I don't have a picture right now either. So I guess this is it.

Just Pictures.

Here are some pictures I took of Tyrel, Kimber and their cousin Kyle on Wednesday. Most of the ones of Kimber did not turn out, despite me taking as many of her as of Tyrel. Her eyes would be closed or else she would be looking elsewhere or something. The girls and I think the black and white one of Tyrel looks like his Uncle James. What do you think Crystal? It was about impossible to get a good picture of Tyrel and Kyle at the same time. So here ya go. Enjoy. Notice the bobcat in the background of  picture of Ty holding a bobcat(tractor). It is one of his all time favorite toys.

So about that 5k. I came in 1st...

91st that is. :)  I was doing good there at the beginning. There were lots of people in front of me, but also several behind me. Then by the time all the people only running the 1k had made their turnaround, I was in very last place for the 5k. I eventually passed 5 people. So at least I wasn't very last....nor did I have to walk any. I finished in 34ish minutes. So hopefully by the next one I can trim that down.

My brothers and brother in law that ran all did much better than me though. Tommy got 3rd place for his age divison.That makes me so happy I could almost cry. Growing up he was never what you would call very athletic. He tried, but he was uncoordinated, and slow etc. When we would have race days at school, or go to homeschool track days he would usually come in very last place in anything he did. So I was so very proud of him on Saturday. And no he wasn't only one of three in his age group. There were several 20 and under people there.

My BIL MJ did great also. He finished just 2 minutes after Tommy. Daniel came in about a minute later, and Sam about 2 minutes after Daniel.They are all 13 years old, so they were in the same division as Tommy. I think they need a 15 and under division. MJ would have probably got first in it.

So anyways. Here are some pictures totally unrelated to this post. My mom took all the pictures of the race, and so they are now in Arkansas.

Trying to copy her wide eyed look.