2009 November

29 Nov | 2009

Horns

So, a week ago Friday, Cody was able to get his buck’s horns back. He had a local taxidermist do a European Skull Mount.

He realized, sometime after he had dropped off the horns and before he picked it up, that he really hadn’t had a chance to check out the horns. He’d been in a rush to get out of the woods before it got dark. Then, he made quick work of getting it the meat into the cooler. Then, of course, we made a mad dash to the house since we needed the cooler space. We dropped off the horns fairly early that next morning.

As he looked at the pics I’d taken, he was finally able to study the horns on his buck. . . but it wasn’t the same as being able to see them in person. So, Friday, he spent some quality time with his horns- and the horns of deers past.

It was often hard to have a conversation with him- I’d find him staring off into the dining room looking at his horns. I think the fact that he shot a buck was such a shock and then to see just how wide and tall the buck was became yet another shock.

Truth be told, the horns were so wide that it was hard to get a good shot of them from our dining room.

Cody has spent the last week proudly showing off his horns to all of his friends. I suppose his joy has gotten to me. . . I’ve told him to hang them on my fireplace. . . and if you’d have told me even a year ago that I would be saying that now, I’d say no-way. But, I just feel like that’s where they should be

Filed Under: Outdoors Leave a Comment

28 Nov | 2009

Thanksgiving Dinner

We went to mom’s house yesterday for Thankgiving. We haven’t been over there in quite some time due to my allergy to dogs. We decided that I’d just take plenty of Benadryl and celebrate Turkey Day at Mom and Dad’s. So glad we did. So glad Mom hosted.

As it turned out, I only had to fix one thing- the Chocolate Pie. I knew I wouldn’t be allowed to eat if I didn’t have a Chocolate Pie for my Uncle. I even got out of fixing the meringue! Which given that I hadn’t been feeling the best and given all the benadryl in my system, was a very, very good thing.

Of course, Mom might as well have had benadryl herself. . . She messed the meringue up twice! But, when she got it right, she got it right.

She took it all in stride! I really like this shot of her preparing the sweet potatoes (more on those later):

So, my task for the day was to photograph and capture the day. Well, that’s what I decided my task was. . .I wanted to get some shots of the action. Of course, around my family, you can’t get your camera out without everyone else getting their cameras so they can hide behind them.

There’s just something wrong with my brother’s eye in this shot. . . I’m can’t figure out what he was looking at!

Of course, the turkey took all day to cook. The guys all rested in the living room and watched some football:

I nearly fell asleep myself (benadryl was kickin’) and was glad when there was some more action to photograph. And that my brother found the step stool for me so I could get a different angle on things.

My Aunt Sarah made the gravy:

Cody carved the turkey:

My brother got silly

and then decided to do a little “acting” if you want to call it that. . . at least he didn’t have a camera in his face or one of his dimented faces:

(Later when it was finally dessert time, he would put the pie at his spot at the dinner table as if it was all his. . . he did share though.)

Mom was absolutely in her element in her kitchen.

And then we sat down to eat.

See anything missing????

Just before we moved onto dessert, we started talking about our traditions at Christmas vs. Thanksgiving. I started saying that I preferred our Christmas meal. . . that I’m not a turkey person, but eat a little turkey just because you feel like you have to. . . just like I. . . “We forgot the sweet potatoes!”. . . So we had a little helping of sweet potatoes between the meal and dessert. . . ’cause as I was going to say, I have to have a small bit of sweet potatoes- with marshmellows on top.

Filed Under: Family and Friends 2 Comments

17 Nov | 2009

Lone Star Christmas

I was browsing the internet today and came across a book called “Lone Star Christmas”. . . I thought about what the book might be about as I clicked on the book’s image which included a single spur and holly. Lone Star. . . Christmas. . . There is really is only one star at Christmas, now isn’t there.

It seemed to sum up what I want Christmas to be like this year. In the last few Christmas’s, I’ve really focused on Christ- Decor for Christmas. I’ve focused on cutting out the secular world from my Christmas. I’ve decorated with things like Poinsettias, Stars, and Nativities. Even my Santa cookie plate and Santa stocking have stayed in the decorations box. And, without kids, I haven’t had to wrestle with what to do with Santa at Christmas.

I will continue this new tradition this year. When I think about my holidays this year- From Thanksgiving to Christmas- the things I want are the same. To focus on my faith and family with simplicity, joy, and gratitude.

We’ll be going to my parents for Thanksgiving and I’ll be spending time with my husband out at the deer lease for much of the holiday season. Advent starts just after Thankgiving and I’m looking forward to the waiting and preperation for Christmas. I plan on completing several advent devotionals this year. And then it’ll be Christmas. I really want the focus of my Christmas to be celebrating the Nativity of Jesus with my family- and good food of course.

(To my dismay, the book actually appears to be a Christian Romance novel and I’m not sure that it even touches on my thoughts as I read that title.)

Filed Under: Faith, Me, Myself, and I 1 Comment

13 Nov | 2009

This Week at the Lease

We ran into town and I thought I’d share a short blog post by cell. I’ve loved having our own little humble abode. Each time I make the beds I start singing Daryl Lee Rush’s “White Trash Paradise.”

Cody is in “paradise” with his buck that he got last night. For those who want to see pics, click here:

http://www.jenkinsprojects.com/Deer/Deer11-12-09/index.html

Things are looking good ’round here.. .

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6 Nov | 2009

Flashback Friday: Tugboat Parade

I mentioned the hot muggy weather when we were in Corpus last month when I took this picture.

This is the tale of the absolute opposite weather in Corpus Christi. Well, except that, it was as windy if not even windier. It was the coldest day I ever remember in Corpus and Cody would agree. I don’t think I have any pictures to mark the day- a day that would wind up a famous legend in our family. One that has become a part of the very code we speak.

My parents, grandmother, and brother were in town for Christmas. We’d gone to the aquarium and found out that we’re having a lighted tugboat parade. I love watching tugboats and so this was the ticket. I talked everyone- my husband, my family, and my mother-in-law- into going back for the Tugboat Parade. I couldn’t wait to see the tugboats.

We came back to the aquarium that evening to enjoy the parade. We wandered around the aquarium as we waited for night fall. . . so the lighted tugboat parade could start. We sat out on the lawn- right about where I took the picture above (only it’s not lawn anymore). It was so cold and the wind blew that cold damp air off the water. We huddled up. We drank hot chocolate. We took turns going inside trying to warm up. We worried about my Grandmother but she handled it just fine.

I waited to see the tugboats.

The parade was late. From what we gathered, the coast guard had been called out and was late for the parade. We huddled up. We drank hot chocolate. We took turns going inside trying to warm up. We worried about my Grandmother but she still seemed to be just fine.

I waited to see the tugboats.

After hours in the cold damp wind, the moment finally arrived. The parade began- the parade which consisted of two lighted coast guard cutters and one, count them, one tugboat.

I felt horrible about convincing every one to wait for this little moment. We couldn’t believe that we’d waited all this time for 1 tugboat in a Tugboat parade.

The parade would go down in infamy. Now, when we do something, we say, “I don’t know this might be a tugboat parade.” We judge things as being worthwhile or not by comparing them to the tugboat parade. If it wasn’t very fun or what we thought, it was a tugboat parade. And we’re always thankful when things surpass the tugboat parade.

(Little did I know that night that while I worried about my grandmother, my husband was quite ill. He knew I loved the tugboats and never let on that he was not feeling well. The next morning he awoke with 104° temp.)

Filed Under: Family and Friends 1 Comment

5 Nov | 2009

In the Back

I was looking through some writing/blog prompts today and one of them was “what’s in your car trunk?”. Of course, we don’t have a trunk. . . we have trucks.

And we now have two trucks which really seems to mirky the waters. It’s difficult to remember which truck we’re in and what is in which truck. We also need duplicates of things that we don’t have.

In the back of the Ford? The back seat is pretty clean. There’s paperwork we’ll overnight at lunch, jackets, trash, kleenex, wipes, and I don’t honestly know what else. But, I do know that when I turn around I can see floor and I can see the seat. In the truck bed, well, that’s another story. There’s antifreeze which we’ve tried to keep in the truck since our “fun” in Elk City, Oklahoma. . . and the “fun” we had in September. There’s also a couple of folding chairs from going to soccer games. . . they actually need to go in the back of the other truck and out to the deer lease. There’s the mat we stole from Bennie that we have really loved having. What else? hmm. . . I’m sure there’s some other junk but it was cleaned out last month when we took the mattresses out to the deer lease. In the toolbox. . . well no tools and from what I understand, no rope. What’s the point, right? The tools. . . the ones we used to have in there are in the other truck but that reminds me that the tools we bought with our September fun are in the backseat of the Ford. I’m going to have to investigate the toolbox further. . . There’s a first aid kit and jumper cables. I think there’s a charger for the ryobi tool set which has taken up residence in the other truck. Since it seems Cody is robbing this toolbox for the other truck and who knows where else, I need to take an inventory. . . there should be some fix a flat, straps, and baggies but I don’t know.

That kinda brings me to the other truck, the Chevy- which has really become Cody’s truck. I can’t begin to tell you what’s in there. Supposedly, Cody began cleaning it out this week as part of the transition from pre-hunting deer lease work to actual hunting season. I just know that it’s been his own personal space to clutter up and that every time I try to find something in there, it drives me batty.

One thing that is not in that truck though is a cell phone charger. We’ve got one on order. It’s been clear that there are a number of things we need to buy in order to have things we need in both trucks. A cell phone charger is just one of those things. In our confusion on which truck had our vehicle charger, we were without one recently when we really needed one. Confusion- that’s the other thing that having two trucks has brought.

The little differences in the trucks make a huge difference. Cody unlocks the doors to the Chevy with the key fob, but I just stand there until he gets in because I’m waiting for him to unlock the doors like he would in the Ford. And that Chevy, it doesn’t let you out of the blasted thing when you pull on the door handle. The Ford on the other hand unlocks so you can get out.

It really became a problem a few Saturday’s ago when we bought something that came in a huge box. . . I didn’t think anything of it until we got in the parking lot and realized we weren’t in the Ford. . . And it wasn’t going to fit underneath the bed cover. Thankfully, it did fit in the back seat- so long as I sat indian style in the front seat with my knees touching the dash.

I think I liked it better when we only had one truck. Well, except with the Ford makes life “fun”. . . then I enjoy knowing that I don’t have to make those repairs can wait.

Filed Under: Life's Bits and Pieces Leave a Comment

4 Nov | 2009

It Wouldn’t Hurt Nothing

It was several months after Kenny Chesney released his song “A Lot of Things Different” before I started painting the rooms in our house. It’s something Cody knew I would do eventually and every time we’d hear this line in the song, he knew I was getting closer to painting.

She wanted to paint our bedroom yellow and trim it in blues and greens
But I wouldn’t let her, it wouldn’t of hurt nothing

I knew what color I wanted for the kitchen and the dining room (or so I thought at the time). I had picked out a yellow for the kitchen similar to oen we’d painted my parent’s sunroom. I picked out a matching blue for the living room. I knew I’d paint the ceilings a couple of shades lighter.

But there was this brochure at Lowe’s that contained this one color. D61-1 Morning Fog. I thought I liked it but I really wasn’t sure. It wasn’t a color I’d have chosen. It was totally different than any direction I would have chosen. It kept calling to me. And, as I would think of painting our bedroom in the color , it was that line of Kenny Chesney’s song that I’d hear, “It wouldn’t hurt nothing”.

In the end, I went for it and have never been more happy that I tried something different. I love the color. It takes on a different hue in different lights. It’s bright yet calming. I’ve since repainted my kitchen D61-1, Morning Fog, and re-painted my living room a matching color (smoke screen) from that same brochure.

I’ve always said that when, if ever, we get our next house, which we’d plan on building, the entire house would be D61-1, Morning Fog. And recently, I’ve come to realize that I have no idea why I have to wait on some pipe dream to have the walls in my home be D61-1, Morning Fog. “It wouldn’t hurt nothing.”

When we got the trailer at the deer lease and I looked at all the old paneling, how dark it was inside, and the different surfaces, I knew immediately, I’d be painting the interior D61-1, Morning Fog. Cody knew, “It wouldn’t hurt nothing.”

Next, D61-1 will be making further appearances in my home. I should have enough paint leftover from the trailer to paint both of our bathrooms in Morning Fog. After I finish that painting and recover from the fun that is painting, I’ll be starting on the living room and the hallway.

I love D61-1, Morning Fog. It hasn’t hurt nothing.

Filed Under: At Home, Me & Him, Me, Myself, and I Leave a Comment

3 Nov | 2009

October Began With A Trip Down South

We were just down there in July. But when Coralyn told us that her brother passed away, we knew we’d make another trip down to Corpus Christi. Cody says it totally messed up his average since before July, it had been a really long time since we were there. It didn’t matter as we knew we needed to be there.

Since I’ve become a Hotwire fan, I checked out Hotwire and found I could get a 4-star hotel in the waterside area for less than I could get a hotel out by his mom. (So far, I’ve only hotwired 4-stars because you don’t know what hotel you’re getting and 3-stars can be a lot of different things.) And most of our activities would be in town so the hotel would be closer. I checked out what 4-stars were in Corpus and thought we would be across from the seawall. NOT! We were across the Harbor Bridge- Yipee! (And on the beach, but we’re not beach folks). Cody did take it better than I thought he would- probably helped that we’d stayed at the hotel, under different ownership, over 10 years ago. We had a great room and I always enjoy watching the ships and the tugs come in and out of the port.

I counted 13 tugboats while I was there. (Much fewer than I remember seeing in the past)

Our room was not directly overlooking the beach. . . Instead, we had a bit of an angled view- of the beach, the Lady Lex, the Corpus Skyline, the Harbor Bridge, and the Refineries. Our balcony was excellant for some night shooting.

We had a chance to catch up with Cody’s cousins and that was really nice. The last time we saw his second cousins, the oldest was 1. . . now 10! And there were three we’d never met. We also learned that their dad, Cody’s uncle, wanted to be in Coralyn’s wedding so bad that he and his wife had a second wedding in a Catholic church. (And that their mom had to convert from Baptist to Catholisism to do it.) I barely knew his uncle but heard some great stories.

We also spent one late night catching up with some friends we hadn’t seen in years! That was lots of fun. . . and it was another chance to see how quickly kids and families grow.

We managed to squeeze in some time for the Aquarium. Literally, we had 1.5 hours Saturday, so we made a run for it. . . OK we walked. One of the things that stuck out with us was how hot and humid it was. And windy. I remember the wind, but neither of us really remembered it being that nasty hot and sticky. . . in October none the less. On our walk to the aquarium from the hotel, this is what Cody’s hair looked like.

On our way to the aquarium we really worked hard to keep the sand out of our shoes. We really aren’t folks that enjoy sand. . . though we did take one walk along this beach.

We wound up getting a membership at the aquarium and snuck in another 1.5 hour trip on Sunday. We always loved the aquarium. With two trips and the fact that we had other pics of the aquarium, it was an excellant chance to practice some photography. And a challenge in some of the darker areas. The otter exhibit has always been one of my favorites and we spent lots of watching them- even saw a girl drop her cell phone into the otters water. The otters pounced on it. . . a new toy. We also arrived both days just in time to see the last dolphin show.

One really huge ship left the port while we were at the aquarium. . . I mean really huge!

Like the distortion. . . they had a dome thing you where you could stick your head “into” the one of the tanks.

Cody took these next two shots of me. . . in the tank. . .

Just for mom:

The aquarium highlight though happened with about 10 minutes before the aquarium closed in the viewing area underneath the dolphin tank- where they held an impromptu underwater show practice. Oh my goodness, to see the dolphins interact and their faces. It was amazing.

All of these pics are unedited except for sharpening done when uploading. We took over 1500 pics which of course have been edited down tremendously but I haven’t had a chance to even begin editing them. And as you can see by the number of pictures posted here. . . I’ve had a tough time narrowing down my favorites.

Filed Under: Family and Friends, Me & Him, Photography 1 Comment

1 Nov | 2009

November is Here! Routines and Schedules Please

October is Gone! Praise the Lord! November is Here! I love that each year, each month, each week, each day, each hour, we’re given a fresh starting point.

October wasn’t the best month around here. It had it’s share of the blues, wacky times, and busy times. There was no routine and no schedule. Everything seemed to suffer- we we’re exhausted, we ate miserably, the house became a mess. . . and this blog really suffered too.

Each year, November brings a new rhythm to our household. Hunting season comes into full swing. Gone are the days of preperation and the overnights at the deer lease begin. With a new place to stay at the deer lease, I plan on being out there more often. I know I want to enjoy my time out there.

And I knew with everything that October was and everything I want November to be, I need to get organized. We bought the month’s groceries last week. I wanted to get a head start. I wanted to do some freezer cooking. So, after shopping for the month’s groceries, this was the scene on my dining room table- before I started cooking each of the recipes you see on the table. Our freezers are full.

Now, I can settle into the rhythm that November brings- the new rythymn that this year will bring.

Filed Under: Cooking, Me, Myself, and I Leave a Comment

Horns

Thanksgiving Dinner

Lone Star Christmas

This Week at the Lease

Flashback Friday: Tugboat Parade

In the Back

It Wouldn’t Hurt Nothing

October Began With A Trip Down South

November is Here! Routines and Schedules Please

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