Number 2!

Chalk another one up—today has been great! This morning when I was waking up I was having the darnedest dream about Marcie, Kinky's sweet, younger sister, so I decided to dream a little more of it so I could find out what happened, so I rolled over in bed and fell back to sleep with my dogs snuggling close to me, because they didn't want to get out of bed either.

In this crazy, weird dream that I was having Marcie, (who really does work for the State Department) had been assigned to Russia and for some reason I was going with her, but only for a month. I didn't want to go to Russia, because of Mrs. Reece, my sixth grade teacher who I was sure was a Communist spy for several reasons and also because I didn't want to leave Tony or be gone from the rescue ranch that long or fly the unfriendly skies.

Anyway, the next thing you know Marcie and I are at a ranch in Russia, standing on a mountain top and we are talking to a Russian rancher who was proudly showing us his Russian spread. It was a beautiful ranch, but the wannabe cowboy looked stupid because he was wearing one of those tall, furry helmets on his head, as he bragged about his large herd of imported Alpacas. Then out of nowhere he says to me in broken Texan, "Cousin Nancy, I want to marry ya. I read your blog. I love you and I will pay Tony some money, so I can marry ya." Marcie's eyes got real big and so did mine.

"Ya, right! Ya have got to be kidding me," I thought to myself. Then this Russian romancer rancher takes my hand and I woke up and got out of bed as the dogs flew off of the bed. I couldn't quit thinking about the silly dream and tried to figure out what it meant as I fed the dogs and started a load of laundry in Queen Bee. By the time Tone got home I had forgotten all about it—thank goodness.

After I cleaned up the breakfast dishes I sat down at the kitchen table and checked my e-mail. After answering eighteen I opened up the one from my friend Joni Daniel, the owner and publisher of Texas Animal Imprints magazine and it made me cry.

Joni had sent me a roughed out version of my column for the November/December issue with the artwork and I absolutely Loved It! It was so beautiful that I pinched myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming and it hurt. I quickly shot her back an e-mail thanking her for making my day great and told her how much I loved it. I can't wait for y'all to see and read it—it's my very first column!

After I made a couple of copies of it, I showed it to T. and he thought it looked fantastic, so I called Kinky and then went over to the Lodge to show it off to him and he was very impressed with it and he congratulated me on writing my very first column. We had a fun, but short visit and we mainly talked about how well Sophie Friedman was fitting in and I made Kinky laugh when I spoke for Sophie and said, "I love Uncle Chum and Uncle Brownie."

I was on Cloud Nine because of the column when I came home. I started to call Sandy and Jon to tell them the exciting news about it and then I changed my mind, because I wanted to check out my fasterpiece watercolor on eBay to see if there were anymore bids. I laughed out loud when I saw that there had been eleven bids and it was now up to $36.00 and the Wolfmuellers were the highest bidder! And, that's when I called Wolfmueller's Books to thank them and to tell them about my column in Texas Animal Imprints.

After Jon told me that he knew it was me, I told him about how excited I was with my first column and how beautiful the artwork looked and he was very happy for me. Then I changed the subject. "Jon, I can't believe that eleven people have already bid on my first watercolor fasterpiece and y'all are the top bidders and..."

"I know," Jon said. "Sandy and I like it. It reminds us of Grandma Moses. We want to buy it because the first paintings are the most valuable. You should paint another one and forget about..." After Jon and I discussed the possibility of me becoming an artist we said adios to each other and then the phone rang immediately—it was June, our super dog walking volunteer and I let Carlton take the call, because nature was calling me, so to speak.

When I returned to the big room I listened to June's message. "Nancy, this is June. There is going to be a drumming at the Yoga Place on October 17th and I really think that you will enjoy it. I am going to go to it and it is free and you can bring your own drum or borrow one of theirs...." By the time June finished her message I had decided to go to the drumming session with her. It will be perfect, because it will be my birthday and I love drumming! Thank you, June!

This afternoon after catching up and taking care of ranch business I decided to try and paint another watercolor fasterpiece. It ended up taking me an hour this time, because of a few pleasant interruptions. I made it a companion piece to the first one and have named it "Mountains to Remember" and I hope that you like it or at least it will make you laugh. Not to brag, but I am pretty proud of it even though it ain't great. Here are three pictures showing the progression of how I did it—starting with a blank page.

Once again, I have posted it up on eBay for auction, with fifty percent of the profit going to the Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch and here is the number if you want to check it out 130440946734. And please note that the cat is fat—not pregnant.

Y'all have a great evening!

Texas Animal Imprints Magazine Rocks Even More!

Today has been another great day. It got down to fifty-one degrees this morning and then it quickly warmed up to eighty degrees, so I didn't feel stupid wearing a long sleeved turtle neck with my denim overalls. I love wearing turtle necks and my favorite wardrobe to wear are my winter clothes, because they cover me up and help hide my muffin top and old ladies neck.

 This morning after I walked six miles and cleaned up, I checked my e-mail. My new found friend Joni Daniel, the publisher of Texas Animal Imprints: The Celebration of Animals & Nature, a beautiful, uplifting magazine that I love, sent me a note about their upcoming November / December issue which will feature Connie Strong's sweet story about our rescue ranch, so I shot her back an e-mail.

While I was checking and answering my other e-mails Joni shot one right back to me and I returned it as fast as she had returned my last note. Twenty minutes later after I had answered all of my e-mails and was about to get offline an e-mail from Joni popped up in my mailbox, so I read it and I am so glad that I did, because she has invited me to write an ongoing column for her magazine which would also include a Pet Of The Month story with a picture! Talk about thrilled—I was speechless and as you know that is such a rare thing for me—just ask Tony and all of my friends.

After re-reading her invitation several more times to make sure that I wasn't dreaming I pinched myself to make sure—and it hurt, so I shot Joni back another e-mail accepting her invitation and telling her how excited, honored and thrilled I was to be asked and my answer to her was, "Yes, I would love to do it! You've just made my day..." And I meant it. Then I thought about Tony and went outside to find him.

"Tony! Thank goodness were done with Mercury in retrograde and the full moon," I half-hollered, as I walked up to Ben and Gracie's pen. "I am so excited! You're not going to believe this..." After I filled him in on my good news I had a light bulb moment or maybe I should say a Kodak moment. "Tony? This just popped into my head." Tone started chuckling. "How about you taking the pictures of the dog of the month for me and I'll give you credit for the photo? It would be something else for you to add to your photography portfolio! How cool is that!"

Tony put down his pooper-scooper and smiled, "I would love to, Nance. Are you sure?" After I reassured him I returned to the trailer and went to check my e-mail just in case Joni had changed her mind. When I opened my mailbox I had received one new e-mail from her.

In the last e that I had sent to her I asked Joni if it would be okay for me to announce this on my blog tonight and this was her response:

"You can paint it on the bathroom walls. Also get Tony involved to get great pics and I'll give him photo credits. We need to think of a catchy name for the column. I'll pass this on to Connie and between the three of us, I'm sure we can come up with a great column name!!!!" 


When I read her words, "Also get Tony involved..." I could not believe that she and I were on the same page and thinking the exact same thing about Tony taking the pictures, so I ran (jogged) back outside to find T. and tell him what Joni had suggested. I don't think he fully believed me until he came inside the trailer and read Joni's note twice.


After lunch Buttermilk took us to Kerrville, so we could pick up a pain prescription for Thunder, because we had run out. Before going to Hoegemeyers Animal Clinic we stopped by Wolfmueller's Books, so I could give Sandy and Jon a copy of Texas Animal Imprints magazine and tell them our good news. Their store was packed full of customers, so we had a short, but fun visit with them and then we left to go to Hoegemeyers.


When T. was inside the clinic picking up Thunder's pain pills I glanced up and saw the magazine tucked inside the overhead visor—I had totally forgotten to give them the magazine and share our good news. When Tony climbed into Buttermilk I said, "We've got to go back to Wolfmuellers. I forgot to..."


"Sandy, I forgot to give this to you," I said, on the sidewalk, as we watched an ambulance and fire truck parked in the street, five doors down with their lights flashing. After I told Sandy about the great Kinky story and Ace Reid's story both written by Connie Strong in the September / October issue I told her about being asked to write monthly columns for them and Tony taking the pictures of our dogs, as Sandy thumbed through the magazine.


"Nancy, that is great news!" she said, as she grabbed my hand and squeezed it. "Listen, this is a great magazine and I know that they would fly out of here. People like to read this kind of stuff..." When we drove away the ambulance and fire truck were still parked in the street with their lights flashing.


When we got home Tony mowed and I returned several phone calls. Then I went over to the Lodge to deliver some mail for Kinky before he arrived back at the ranch.


This evening at six minutes past seven the phone rang and I let Carlton take the message. "Hello, Nancy and Tony. This is Jimmie Dunn and we just got to Bandera and..." And I picked up the phone.


"Hello, Jimmie! Tony and I cannot wait to see you and Nelda. I'm so glad that y'all made it safely. How was your trip from Arkansas?" Jimmie laughed.


"Well, let's see. We got here fine, but it seemed a lot longer than before, even though we only made two stops. We left Arkansas at six thirty this morning and we just checked into our motel a few minutes ago and we're fixin' to go eat a steak somewhere. We will try to be there at one o'clock if that is okay?"


"Jimmie, that sounds perfect and we will see y'all tomorrow. Please tell Nelda I said hello and..."


Y'all have a great evening!