Pez Dispenser! Wished Upon A Car! or Present From Scout!

Yesterday was a great day, because Tony and I met our good friends, Kris & Jim aka "The Mineral Man" for a fun lunch. And before I go any further—Tony and I did not order the exact same thing, but we were close. We both ordered iced teas and chicken-fried steaks, but mine was a much smaller version.

While we were eating our lunch Jim suggested that besides me writing Cowgirl Sisterhood novellas, etc., "Nancy, you should write about some of the funny things that have happened to you in your life." So I took his cue and told them this story.

"When I was in the 5th grade and Ronnie was in the 6th grade he was good friends with our neighbor Billy Upton and Steve Crane, who lived a few blocks away from us.

Anyway, Steve's parents bought him this little red & silver Mo-ped and Steve drove it over to our house, as soon as he got it, so he could show it off to Ronnie and Billy, because they only had bikes to ride. (Steve didn't care if I saw it or not, because I hadn't started wearing a training bra yet—go figure.)

Well, Billy and Ronnie (and me) were very impressed with it, so Steve let Ronnie and then Billy take it for a short spin around the block. (I didn't get to ride it, because as Aunt Hermajean had told my mom, "I think Nancy is going to be a" dwarf!" Because I was very short.

So after Ron and Billy took it for a spin Ronnie decided, it would be funny for some crazy reason, to get an old, rolled-up, scrap piece of light tan carpet, from our garage and tie me up in it and put me in the middle of the street, to see if cars would drive around me. The guys thought his prank was funny, but I didn't.

In fact, I was wishing that Mom was home to stop it, but she was working, at her new part-time job (folding bath & kitchen towels and waiting on customers, etc.), at Monnig's, a small, locally-owned, upscale department store, located in the Westcliff addition, which was right next to the South Hills neighborhood where we lived.

Well, it only took Ronnie less that two minutes to roll me up in the carpet and tie it up. And I looked like one of those Pez candy dispensers with only my head poking out one end. Then Ronnie, Steve and Billy picked me up off of the front yard and they laughed all of the way while they carried me and set me down, in the middle of Stadium Drive, which was a pretty busy street. Then they went and hid, behind the bushes and wished upon a car to show up.

Thank goodness only a couple of cars stopped and carefully drove around me and I was really starting to get hot, inside the carpet, on the hot pavement, because it was the middle of summer.

Then my wish, unexpectedly came true—Mom showed up, at the stop sign, on the corner of Medina Ave. and Stadium Drive and she looked horrified, when she slowly drove around me and pulled into our driveway. And she was hollering, "Ronnie! You get over here right now!" before she even set the emergency brake and had gotten out of her two-toned, '64 or '65 Mustang.

In seconds, Ronnie, Billy and Steve ran out, from behind the bushes and went and picked me up and laid me down, on my parents lush, green Bermuda grass lawn, that they were so proud of. And while Ronnie was nervously trying to untie me, Mom said, "Steve and Billy, y'all need to go on home. Ronnie what in blue blazes...."

The bottom line    Ronnie got in trouble big-time trouble and he was grounded for a week and I am still here to tell my near death experience."

After Kris & Jim and Tony had quit laughing, Kris asked Jim to please tell his story about being the best man, at his friend's wedding, decades ago. "Well, it was a prank and we were best friends...." Bottom line    Jim and his buddies were drinking a little, so to speak and they ended up tying the nervous groom, to a street sign, using duct tape! (Jim, forgive me for putting your hilarious story, on a bumper-sticker, but this post is starting to look more like a book instead of a blog post.)

Today has been great, but it is still early. This morning I received an e-mail from Carol, with the subject line: "Present From Scout!" and she wrote: "For YOUR bun 😀" and when I looked at the picture she sent of her holding Scout's hair—I burst out laughing. And of course, that scared Little Debbie and Big Al(ice) and it caused them to start barking and running around the big room until Tony got back home, after drinking coffee with his friends, at the Old Timer, in Medina.

Y'all have a great Thursday and keep on laughing!

Is It Big Foot or Sasquatch?!

Yesterday our good friend, Debbie, the owner of the Old Timer, in Medina, called me around noon to tell me that her friend Mary had just rescued two Pyr pups, about 4-5 weeks old, and she wanted to know if we could help. "Nancy, I know that you have been praying for a Great Pyrenees to show up so you could rescue it ever since Mama died over a year ago. I definitely want one of them...."

An hour later, Tony and I were, in Debbie's back office, at the Old Timer, holding two precious, white, chunky pups, in our arms.

Within minutes, after Debbie and I talked about the puppies, I adopted the female pup and Debbie adopted her twin brother. And because Debbie is going to be so busy during the holidays we promised to take care of her male puppy for her, for the next couple of weeks.

So the reason why I didn't write anything yesterday was because Christmas came early for me, because I was too busy playing with these two adorable pups. Here is Roy and Big Al(ice) checking out the pups before we took the puppies outside to play.

These two pups are very hard for us to tell apart, because they look exactly alike, so we have to pick them up and check to know who is who. This afternoon after we had a fun lunch with our dear friends/volunteers, at the Koyote Grill, Tony and I took the twins to Hoegemeyer Animal Clinic, to get them a check up.

The puppies rode in the big box that Debbie had given to us yesterday. They were quiet and slept the entire time and thank goodness they didn't get carsick. When Tone and I walked inside the clinic Susan greeted us and then the pups stole every one's hearts, that were in the lobby. "What are their names?" Susan asked.

"One is Big Foot and the other is Sasquatch," I stated.

Then Susan came out to take the young, gentle giants from us. When I started to hand my pup over to her, she asked, "Is it Big Foot or Sasquatch?"

"I don't know," I said. "I forgot to look when Tony handed it to me."

Then Tony took a quick look at the puppy he was holding, and said, "Nancy's is Big Foot. I've got Sasquatch."

Tony and I had a fun visit with Dr. Janssen as he and his sweet assistant weighed the pups and then took their temperatures and stool samples. The pups each weighed 5.5 pounds and yes they had worms. And after Dr. Janssen de-wormed them and given them a clean bill of health, he told us to please bring them back in two weeks to get their first puppy shots.

And that is about it for tonight, because I am going to go put a pink collar on "Sassy" and then play with these two adorable twins that I truly believe were heaven sent from Mama and my parents. 

Y'all have a great evening!

P.S. My dear friend Mari sent me this super cool, feel-good wedding video. The groom and groomsmen lip sync My Girl to the new bride. Just click here and scroll down the page to view it. The puppies and this fun to watch wedding video have made my day great. "Thanks Mari!"

Little Buddy!

Today has been great. This afternoon, we met Kinky and Copper for lunch and Kinky treated us all to lunch and it was a lot of fun, but I want to tell y'all about Tony's cool, out-of-this-world, scientific project, that began early Thursday evening, while Carol was over here visiting with us.

This past Wednesday, Tony, Carol and I received a large box, filled with very cool Christmas presents, from Cheryl and Walter, our dear friends, that we love and who always keep us laughing. Anyway, Carol came over Thursday evening, to pick up their Christmas gift and while we were admiring the gifts that Cheryl and Walter had given to us, Tony grabbed one of their presents to him, which was an Alien Egg—guaranteed to hatch out within 24-36 hours, if he closely followed the incubating instructions. With my best friend and me sitting at the kitchen table laughing, Tony declared, "It's time to hatch my alien egg!"

After Tony had carefully removed the fragile alien egg, from the box, he filled a glass with luke-warm tap water and then he gently put his alien egg into the glass of water and it immediately sank to the bottom of the glass.

"Now what happens?" Carol asked, before we all started laughing, again.

"We must wait," Tony said, as he watched his alien egg do absolutely nothing.

"And we must speak softly," I teased. "I've heard that alien eggs are real sensitive."

"Then we had better quit laughing," Carol whispered, because she didn't want to upset Tony's alien egg. Then she told us one hilarious story about what she did one time with her Sea Monkeys.

Friday morning, when I got out of bed, the first thing I did was skip into the kitchen, to check on Tony's ultra-sensitive alien egg. Then I took this picture, so I could document it and record it for history.

Around 1:30, when Tony and I returned to The Cabin, after eating a fun lunch with our friends: Kris & Jim and Carol, at the Medina Highpoint Resort—Tony's precious, alien egg had begun to crack. So, for more documentation, I snapped this picture of it beginning to hatch.

Friday night before Tony and I went to bed, I checked on Tony's egg and I was amazed at what I saw. So once again I took another picture, to document it for the science community, that supposedly lives somewhere in the Texas Hill Country.

I didn't sleep well Friday night, because I couldn't quit worrying about Tony possibly being responsible for creating an alien monster, inside our thirty-year-old trailer. I visualized cars backed up, bumper to bumper, outside our rescue ranch, waiting to view Tony's alien friend or monster, sort of like they did in the movie Field of Dreams. I also kept trying to come up with names for our alien baby, that was soon to be fully hatched and the only name that I came up with, that was halfway descent was, Little Buddy. And I also had a nightmare about Tony being arrested for illegally hatching out aliens and that I would have to hire someone to do his job, at the rescue ranch, because good help is so hard to find these days.

Saturday morning, the first thing I did was take a baby Aspirin, so I wouldn't have a heart attack when I checked on Little Buddy and it was a good thing, too, because Little Buddy had nearly hatched out of his egg. After making sure that he had the right amount of arms, legs, toes, fingers etc. I happily took Little Buddy's first, alien baby picture, to share with the world.

When Tony returned home from drinking coffee with his friends, at the Old Timer, in Medina, I congratulated him on his successful, scientific project. Then Tony looked at Little Buddy, inside the glass of water incubator and then he carefully removed him and dried him off, so I could take Little Buddy's second picture—sitting in Tony's hands. He's too cute!

As you can tell, I am finally in the holiday spirit and am no longer stressing out about the holiday season, so I wanted to write a funny tale, that I hope made y'all laugh. As I finish writing this corny post, we have sweet Ginger Rogers and her five, adorable three-week-old puppies, in my office, sleeping peaceably and Little Buddy resting above our kitchen sink, in the middle of the top shelf. Life is good.

Y'all have a great evening! (And thank you, Cheryl and Walter, for keeping us laughing! We love Little Buddy and please know that he is in good hands, but please don't tell anybody! I don't want Tony going to jail or us having a pile of cars lined up, outside the rescue ranch every day, to get their pictures taken standing next to Little Buddy, in our kitchen.)

Flush The Toilet!

Today has been a total blast, because this afternoon we invited Carol and her two long, lost friends in Dallas, Vickie and Debbie, that she found on Facebook, to come over for a visit.

When Carol called to tell me they were headed our way I went into action. I removed my copy of the Holstee Manifesto from the refrigerator and went and made three copies of it, so I could give it to them. Then I put the copies on the breakfast bar and put my turquoise, handmade Esteban-sort-of-copied shrine next to them, so I wouldn't forget to give them the copies and show them what I had made and then Trigger took me over to the Lodge, so I could tell Marcie that Debbie, an Echo Hill Camp alumni, back in the late 60's, was coming over and that she was anxious to see her and the camp.

"Sounds great, I would love to see them." Then I came back home and waited for their arrival.

The few seconds that it took for Carol to introduce us to her friends, that she had lost contact with over thirty something years ago—Tony and I instantly fell in love with them too—they were family.

After a fun visit inside the trailer, filled with laughter, us girls jumped into Carol's gigantic Ford F-250 truck, which makes me drool for, we went over the river and through the woods to go see Marcie. "OMG, there's the swimming hole and that's the dining hall!" Debbie said, excitedly, fondly remembering her happy summers that she spent at Echo Hill Camp. "And there's the bunkhouses and the Infirmary!..." As Tone followed us in Kermit.

As soon as I introduced Marcie to everyone she and Debbie went down Echo Hill Camp memory lane and it was really fun for us to listen to Debbie and Marcie talk about their fond memories and their mutual friends that they had made at Echo Hill Camp. And before we ventured outside to stroll around the magical camp, Marcie gave Debbie an Echo Hill Camp t-shirt and shorts, which was so sweet of her to do.

After we had visited one of the "Campers" bunkhouses and the dining hall we thanked Marcie and adios-ed her and then Debbie jumped into Kermit with Tone, so he could give her a personal tour, as Carol, Vickie and I followed them in the truck-that-I-want.

When we returned to the rescue ranch Tony showed off my latest Space Ship to Vickie and Debbie, which they loved and then we went into Outer Space, with T. happily sitting-in on our hilarious hen-party.

We talked about Echo Hill Camp, Kinky's parents Uncle Tom and Aunt Min, who Debbie had loved so much, how we could not believe that we had all gotten to be so old, but felt like we were still eighteen years old, about Tony's and my extremely funny, short courtship, their fun days in Dallas and their past boyfriends in Dallas and some of their hilarious, crazy antics.

When I told Vickie, who grew up in Mount Pleasant, in east Texas and Debbie, a native Dallasite, that I was born and raised in Ft. Worth, two rivaling sister cities, back then when we were growing up, "My mom always used to tell us, "Now don't y'all forget to flush the toilet, because Dallas needs the water," everyone burst out laughing.

Because of the outdoor heat we eventually decided to come back inside the trailer to continue our super fun visit and while we were solving the world's problems I asked them to listen to Steve Martin's bluegrass version of "King Tut" and they loved it as much as we do and could not believe how cool it was.

When it was time for them to leave, because they needed to go to the Old Timer to get some groceries before it closed, they invited us to come over to Carol's ranch so we could continue our more than fun visit, but we unfortunately had to decline their invite, because I needed to write this and Tony was tired and his back was actually hurting from laughing so much, because of their visit.

Y'all have a great evening and please keep praying for rain for us! Good night.

Mercury Is Back In Retrograde!

Today has been okay—not really great, but not really bad either, thanks to Merc. I have spent most of the last two days with my head buried under paperwork and I have accomplished much, so I feel good about that, but there is still more to do.

I should be used to it by now, because for the past twelve years, the last two weeks of December always seem to be the busiest time of the year for paperwork, but this year having Mercury in retrograde officially starting today and ending on January first, makes it a little more interesting, frustrating and complicated for me.

For example, yesterday when I needed to print out some letters that needed to go out—Hewie, our normally faithful printer, decided to take a thirty-minute time-out, so he could have a nervous breakdown in my office. It seemed that every time that I pushed his button, he would start spitting out one blank page of letterhead after another as fast as he could—with all of his lights lit up, and madly flashing.

After reloading paper, time and time again and witnessing his bizarre behavior, I decided to quit pushing his buttons and do what needed to be done, so I left my office to go get some of that New Mexico sweet grass to be used for smudging, that Cindy had sent to me a while back.

Ten minutes later, after smudging the entire trailer, which was full of smoke, but smelled really good—Hewie was cured and he went back to printing everything that I asked him to print! It was amazing to me, but Tony didn't like it, because he doesn't like for me to smudge and "stink up" our trailer.

This afternoon when I returned from visiting Kinky, over at the Lodge, it was our fax's turn to act up. I was trying to send a fax up to Burleson, Texas, when Felix decided to eat the piece of paper and crumple it up, instead of doing his job. After retyping and trying to resend the fax four more times—I smudged the trailer again, but this time it didn't work, so tomorrow morning, because the people don't have a computer, Tony is going to snail mail it for me, when he goes to the Old Timer in Medina, to see his friends and drink coffee with them.

I wish that I had something more exciting to write about tonight, but that's about it for now.

P.S. Fourth, please don't let T. forget, tomorrow morning, to give you the signed book I put in Buttermilk.

Y'all have a great evening!